194 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



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C. A. CLARK, LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, RESTING IN A RATTLESNAKE DEN. 

 Photographed by L. A. Wentworth, Lynn, Massachusetts. 



One reason that rattlesnakes are not 

 frequently seen is because they do not 

 live in suitable travelling places for 

 the human being, and are seen by only 

 those who hunt them and those who 

 happen to come in contact with them 

 while crossing fields and ledgy places. 

 The rattlesnake is more dangerous in 

 the spring than at any other time of 

 the year because the venom has been 

 gathering all through the winter so 

 that when they come out of their dens 

 their two glands are full of the deadly 

 poison and a bite then would very 

 likely prove fatal in a very short time. 

 In the fall, after capturing their prey 

 during the summer season, their glands 

 contain less of the venom because they 

 have used it to kill the little animals 

 that they eat. 



Rattlesnakes pass a quiet life and 

 will not make any attempt to harm us 

 if we keep away from them. 



Many of our happiest glimpses of na- 

 ture are accidental. We stumble upon 

 things, yet it happens usually when we 

 are trying to find 

 Lore Sharp. 



something. — Dallas 



"Ough! I Don't Like Snakes." 



That there is in the greater part of 

 humanity a dislike of snakes is as 

 generally an admitted fact as is the 

 existence of snakes. It is useless to 

 combat this mental aversion. Human- 

 ity will not love snakes, notwithstand- 

 ing all the pleas and eulogies of her- 

 petologists. All that can be expected 

 is to have justice done. I have implicit 

 confidence that humanity will be just, 

 if the facts in the case are rightly set 

 forth. 



Newspapers are printed to please 

 as large a part of humanity as possible. 

 Perhaps this fact accounts for the 

 many misstatements regarding snakes. 

 "Snakes, poor things," says John Muir, 

 "nobody but God" love them." Most 

 newspapers are not catering to that 

 constituency, in facts of nature ! 



Did any reader ever see an item in 

 a newspaper about snakes that had a 

 good word for them? No. Such good 

 words would not please humanity in 

 general ; it would not add to the con- 

 stituency desired. An example has re- 

 cently come to my attention. 



A Cincinnati newspaper under big 

 "scare head" of "Bad Snakes Scare 



