A MORTAL COMBAT. 149 



cat, I was singularly struck by its close resemblance to 

 that of a rattlesnake ; it had the same expression of 

 wickedness, the same jaws, the same structure of the 

 teeth. I made this comparison all the more easily be- 

 cause one of the negroes who accompanied us had killed 

 a rattlesnake, and carried it triumphantly at the end of a 

 carob branch. This reminds me that, one morning, in 

 South Carolina, on the borders of the immense marsh 

 called the Great Dismal Swamp, I had strayed from the 

 hunt, followed by my faithful dog Black ; I endeavoured 

 to retrace my route, and was returning towards the house 

 where I spent my holidays, when, on doubling a project- 

 ing rock, my dog suddenly started back, with bristling 

 hair, and tail between his legs, and howling hoarsely to 

 attract my attention. I looked before me, and could not 

 repress a cry of horror. 



About forty paces distant a wild cat and a rattlesnake 

 were defying each other to the combat ; their eyes shot 

 forth flame and fire ; one hissed, the other mewed. The 

 serpent moved in folds, marked by grace and suppleness ; 

 the cat raised his back, and appeared to wait for an 

 opportunity of pouncing upon his enemy. Suddenly the 

 serpent made a spring, but the cat anticipated it, and 

 leaped aside ; but as he returned to the attack, the ser- 

 pent bit him in the lip, and though grasped immedi- 

 ately in the wild cat's claws, succeeded in infolding his 

 body and violently compressing it. I put an end to the 

 agony of both; my two barrels stretched them on the 

 ground, dead, and incapable henceforth of doing any 

 injury. 



According to the Indians, the rattlesnake lives on tho 

 pestiferous air of the marshes, and on all corrupted matter, 



