226 SNAKES. 



these lay wreaths of water snakes, amounthig to myriads, 

 basking in. the sun.' A sight of the last century this. I 

 have passed over that part of Lake Erie and through the 

 Detroit river, and remember the islands and the water- 

 lilies and other attractive objects, but 'wreaths of water 

 snakes ' were not of these. 



Lawson, too, can assure us of their habitat, but not their 

 name, and his account is of worth chiefly to verify their 

 swarming numbers. It is possible that some of those 

 which he describes are now extinct or very rare. * Of water 

 Snakes there are four sorts. The first is of the Horn Snake's 

 Colour, though less.' (This might be the young of the 



* water moccasin,' CencJiris^ or Trigonoceph. piscivonts.) 



* The next is a very long Snake, differing in Colour, and will 

 make nothing to swim over a River a League wide. They 

 hang upon Birches and other Trees by the Water Side. I had 

 the Fortune once to have one of them leap into my Boat as I 

 was going up a narrow River. The Boat was full of Mats, 

 which I was glad to take out and so get rid of him. They 

 are reckoned poisonous. A third is much of an English 

 Adder Colour, but always frequents the Salts, and lies under 

 the drift Seaweed, where they are in Abundance, and are 

 accounted mischievous when they bite. The last is of a 

 sooty, black Colour, and frequents Ponds and Ditches. 

 What his Qualities are, I cannot tell.' 



Catesby is responsible for having called Tropidouotus 



fasciattis 'the brown water viper,' a stumbling-block to 



many ever since, much confusion existing between this and 



the true ' water viper,' the dangerous moccasin snake. 



Occasionally they are very dark. They are rather thick 



