Letter from Audubon. 413 



cessary to defend my snake stories, I could send you very curious 

 accounts of the habits of those reptiles ; and I should do it, if it 

 were not that I might be thought to enjoy — too much — that 

 triumph which the feeble hostility of three or four selfish indi- 

 viduals has forced upon me. I receive so many acts of real 

 friendship and disinterested kindness, that, I thank God, there is 

 no room left in my heart to cherish unkind feelings towards any 

 one. Indeed, I am not now so much surprised at the incredulity 

 of persons who do not leave cities, for I occasionally hear of 

 things which even stagger me, who am so often a denizen of 

 woods and swamps. What do you think of rattlesnakes taking 

 to the water, and swimming across inlets and rivers 1 I have not 

 seen this, but I believe it; since the most respectable individuals 

 assure me they have frequently been eye-witnesses of this feat. 

 1 can conceive of inducements which reptiles may have for tra- 

 versing sheets of water to gain distant dry land, especially in a 

 country much intersected by streams, and subject to inundations, 

 which compel them to be often in the water. In such countries, 

 it is not an uncommon occurrence to find snakes afloat, and at 

 great distances from the shore.* This appears, no doubt, sur- 

 prising to those who live where there is almost nothing but dry 

 land; still they ought to be good natured, and believe what others 

 have seen. It has now been made notorious, that numerous re- 

 spectable individuals, whom duty, or the love of adventure, have 

 led into the wilds of our country, have often seen snakes — and 

 the rattlesnake too — in trees : the good people, therefore, who 

 pass their lives in stores and counting houses, ought not to con- 

 tradict these facts, because they do not meet with rattlesnakes, 

 hissing and snapping at them from the paper mulberries, as they 

 go home to their dinners. They should remember that they 

 ought to go farther than that daily distance, if they wish to see 

 any thing extraordinary. 



And now, my dear F., adieu. In my next, I hope to give you 

 some account of, the St. John's river, and of the interior of the 



• Snakes have frequently been met with in England, crossing broad straits. In 

 the Mag. of Nat. History for Sept. 1831, is an account, by Mr. Bakewell, of snakes 

 Bwimming across the Menai, more than two miles broad, to the Isle of Anglesea, 

 where they deposit their eggs on the low grounds. When swimming they pro- 

 duce an oscillatory motion of the head and neck. — Ed. 



