44 The Rattle-Snake disarmed by the 



on land where the white ash grows ; that it was the uniform prac- 

 tice among hunters, as well as others, whose business led them 

 to traverse the woods in the summer months, to stuff their shoes 

 and boots, and frequently their pockets also, with white ash 

 leaves, as a preventive of the bite of the rattle-snake ; and that 

 they had never known or heard of any person being bitten who 

 had used this precaution. 



Some time in the month of August, I went with Mr S. Kirt- 

 land and Dr C. Dutton, then residing at Poland, to the Mahon- 

 ing, for the purpose of shooting deer, at a place where they 

 were in the habit of coming into the river, to feed on the moss 

 attached to the stones in the shoal-water. We took our watch 

 station on an elevated part of the bank, fifteen or twenty yards 

 from the edge of the water. About an hour after we had com- 

 menced our watch, instead of a deer, we discovered a large rattle- 

 snake, which, as it appeared, had left his den, in the rocks be- 

 neath us, and was slowly advancing across a smooth narrow sand 

 beach towards the water. Upon hearing our voices, or for some 

 other cause, he stopped, and lay stretched out with his head 

 near the water. It occurred to me, that an opportunity now 

 offered to try the virtues of the white ash leaves. Requesting 

 the gentlemen to keep, in my absence, a watch over our subject, 

 I went immediately in search of the leaves, and on a piece of 

 low ground, thirty or forty rods back from the river, I now 

 found, and, by the aid of my hunting-knife, procured a small 

 white ash -sapling, eight or ten feet in length ; and, with a view 

 to make the experiment more satisfactorily, I cut another sap- 

 ling of the sugar maple, and with these wands returned to the 

 scene of action. In order to cut off a retreat to his den, I ap- 

 proached the snake in his rear. As soon as I came within seven 

 or eight feet of him, he quickly threw his body into a coil, ele- 

 vated his head eight or ten inches, and brandishing his tongue, 

 " gave note of preparation*" for combat. I first presented him 

 the white ash, placing the leaves upon his body. He instantly 

 dropped his head to the ground, unfolded his coil, rolled over 

 upon his back, writhed and twisted his whole body into every 

 form but that of a coil, and appeared to be in great anguish. 

 Satisfied with the trial thus far made, I laid by the white ash. 

 The rattle-snake immediately righted, and placed himself in the 



