98 THE RING OF NATURE 



that there were hundreds of snakes all in a heap 

 like a magnified handful of elvers. I do not 

 doubt that there were fully thirty, and that after 

 all is a good number. As soon as the boys heard 

 of it they went up there to kill snakes, but though 

 they hacked the bush up and did a good deal of 

 digging, not a scale was seen. Happily for them- 

 selves, the snakes had within the space of little 

 over half an hour adjourned to the safer hedge. 



There is a pleasant summer place for snakes at 

 the entrance to the wood, where a spring issues 

 from the rock and meanders through two acres 

 of swamp gay with marsh marigolds and forget- 

 me-not and odorous with horse mint. Here one 

 day last June as a woman came to the stepping- 

 stones a large snake actually disputed the passage 

 with her. At any rate, it coiled itself and hissed 

 instead of making off, and that was quite enough 

 to determine the woman to go a little way round 

 and let the thing have its way. 



The big snake is not by the stepping-stones 

 to-day. I had not expected it, for, though no 

 place is more certain to contain a few of the frog- 

 hunters in June, they are at present enjoying a 

 more ecstatic life composed of little else but 

 unlimited sun. There is a pond just within the 

 wood where the tadpoles have hatched, but are 

 not yet big. Last year, when these were about 

 half-grown, there was a great commotion in the 

 water one day, and I saw a snake about two feet 

 long entirely under water, snapping at the tad- 



