POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



483 



Tear. 



1864 

 1865 

 1866 

 1867 

 1868 

 1869 

 1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1878 



Year. 



1879. 

 1880. 

 1881 . 



1882. 



1883. 

 1884. 

 1885. 

 1886. 

 1887 . 



Grand total 



294, 577 



Let us look at this table for a moment. Nearly 300,000 vipers killed 

 during twenty-seven years in a department of France almost the exact 

 size of the State of Delaware (Haute-Saone, 2,028 square miles; Dela- 

 ware, 2,050 square miles)! Haute-Saone, in 1876, about the middle of 

 the period covered by the table, had a population of 304,052 souls ; 

 consequently there is said to have been killed in one generation one 

 viper for each human inhabitant! But let us analyze the table a little 

 closer. 



We observe first that in the years of the Franco-German war and 

 those next following there was a great drop in the number of vipers 

 killed, for the people naturally had other things to attend to. We 

 also notice that when, in 1882, the authorities reduced the premium 

 from 25 centimes to 15 centimes per viper the people evidently lost 

 interest in the business, which must have become unijrofitable, since 

 the number killed suddenly dropped from nearly 14,000, in 1882, to 

 a little more than 1,000, in 1883. The result evidently was that the 

 authorities became alarmed at tlie possible increase of the dreaded 

 reptile and again raised the premium to the old figure, undoubtedly to 

 the great satisfection of the snake hunters and a corresponding dei>le- 

 tion of the county treasury. Furthermore, if we average the number 

 of snakes killed during the six years before the war we will find that 

 the annual average of vipers killed was 2,052, or nearly 3,000. The 

 coiresiionding figure for the six years following the excessive drop 

 caused by the war is 2,544, or somewhat less than the average of the 

 first six years. Two conclusions seem warranted by these figures, 

 first, that the average of these twelve years, viz, 2,748, represents the 

 normal number which a diligent search throughout the department 

 might yield; second that the decrease in the number of vipers killed 

 during the years 1870-1872 did not materially increase the number of 



