"Lakes of Pontchartrain" is one of my all time favourites too, especially the "alligator" version, as sung by Paul Brady. The first time I ever heard the song was listening to Paul Brady's set at Cambridge Folk Festival in 1975.

I was told some years ago that the "alligators" in this line is actually a corruption of "Alleghenians", presumably referring to a tribe of Indians. However even my sketchy knowledge of American geography tells me that the Alleghenian mountains are nowhere near Lake Pontchartrain, so this may have been misleading information.

Murray