Illustrated Police News 27 June 1874: The devouring of a boy by an alligator is reported by an Australian journal. On the evening of the 6th April, it says, a boy, aged about fifteen years, son of Mr Porter, Earl Creek, was dragged by an alligator into a waterhole close to his father’s house. It appears that this boy and his elder brother had been engaged getting pigs into a stye, and that the poor lad who is gone went into the edge of the waterhole to wash a greenhide rope, which they had been using with the pigs. When he was so engaged, his little sister, who was sitting on the bank hard by, saw the alligator seize the boy by the leg, and drag him underwater. She gave the alarm, but it was of course too late, the brute had dragged the boy down to the bottom, and nothing more was seen of him for several days, when a leg and a portion of his clothing floated to the surface. A few days later the same paper thus records the destruction of the alligator. The brute was over twelve feet long and of very great age, probably over 100 years. This was indicated by the condition of his monstrous teeth, many of which were gone altogether, and the remainder much worn. He also showed scars and severe marks of former battles, having lost a considerable piece of one side of his snout, probably bitten off by some rival alligator. Inside the stomach were found the skull and hair and some of the bones of the boy. Among the bones were some of the vertebrae, already much worn by the action of the stomach, and also softened, probably by the gastric juice.