224 Naturalist at Large 



so big as the one I might have found with better luck. As 

 a matter of fact, I should have had the one that Loomis 

 got if I had heard of its existence just a little sooner. 



I traveled for years with a wonderful companion, 

 Winthrop Sprague Brooks. He was a talented naturalist 

 who, unfortunately, did not see fit to continue work in 

 the field of zoology. We were together in Florida on many 

 occasions and frequently collected around the Royal Palm 

 Hammock in the very southern tip of the state. 



It was when the hard black roads were first put in and 

 before the snakes which crawled out to warm themselves 

 on particularly cool nights had been largely exterminated 

 by motor travel as they have been now. This has happened 

 to countless thousands upon thousands of reptiles. Indeed, 

 like Professor Shaler, I once made a computation to prove 

 this point. Fairchild and I, crossing on the road from Miami 

 to Everglades — it was in the very early morning — got out 

 to look at some birds. As far as one could see down the road 

 there were little patches which reflected the rising sun's 

 rays. Upon examination we found that each one of these 

 was a remnant of a snake, mostly ground and polished bits 

 of skin of young water moccasins. We measured the width 

 of the road and counted the number of remnants in a 

 distance of about one hundred yards and thus figured out 

 the probable slaughter along the eighty miles from Miami to 

 Ochopee. I have lost the slip of paper with our figuring but 

 the number was absolutely unbelievable. 



Well, this sort of thing was happening in a minor way 

 when Brooks and I were at the Royal Palm Hammock. I 

 had seen several remnants in too bad shape to save as a 



