i62 The Ottawa Naturalist. [October 



RATTLESNAKES AND SCORPIONS. 



During- a recent trip in the interior of British Columbia I fell 

 in with an old acquaintance, Mr. E. Bullock-Webster, from Kere- 

 meeos, on the Similkameen River, near the southern boundary of 

 the province, on the mainland. This part of the country seems to 

 be a continuation of the desert regions which extend through the 

 adjoining States and California down to Mexico ; the theory being 

 borne out by the existence of some of the plants and reptiles 

 peculiar to those regions, lor instance, Purshia tridentata as well 

 as various members of the Artemisia family, burrowing owls, 

 horned toads, rattlesnakes, scorpions, &c. 



Being aware of the existence of scorpions in the hot rocky 

 hills in the vicinity of his ranch, having seen one from there 

 in captivity some years ago at New Westminster which had been 

 kept in a glass jar with only some gravel, and without food or 

 water for several months, I asked my friend if he could obtain a 

 specimen for me. He promised he would do so when opportunity 

 offered ; but the season, he said, was past for obtaining them to 

 the best advantage. He then explained that during the dormant 

 season the scorpions shared the dens of rattlesnakes, Crotalns 

 lucifer (Baird and Girard) and in the spring time when the sun 

 began to attain some power, the snakes come out to the mouths 

 of their dens, in horrid coiling masses, the scorpions running over 

 them on apparently quite friendly terms. Mr. Webster described 

 several of these dens in the rocky defiles of the mountains of 

 Similkameen very graphically. 



One, which from accounts received from Indians, seems to be 

 the headquarters of all the rattlesnakes, is situated in an ideal in- 

 ferno, a weird defile that would have appealed to the imagination of 

 Dor^. It appears that the Indians from superstitious motives do 

 not kill snakes, ant' from the same motives do not ^o near their 

 dens. Mr. W^ebster, however, induced an old Indian to conduct 

 him to the spot, which he did, but would not go nearer than about 

 two hundred yards. Mr. Webster entered the horrid place alone. 

 He says it is indescribably weird, the entrance of the den proper 

 being partly stopped up with bunch-grass, apparently carried 

 there by the snakes, presumably for protection against cold. It 



