158 TKUE BEAK STORIES. 



swinging and sweeping in a semi-circle 

 along before him all the time be- 

 cause of the incredible number of rattle- 

 snakes that infested our portion of Ore- 

 gon in those early days. I shall never 

 forget the terror in this brave stranger's 

 face when he first found out that all the 

 grass on all our grounds was literally alive 

 with snakes. But he had found a good 

 place to stay, and he was not going to be 

 driven out by snakes. 



You see, we lived next to a mountain or 

 steep stony hill known as Rattlesnake 

 Butte, and in the ledges of limestone rock 

 here the rattlesnakes hibernated by thou- 

 sands. In the spring they would crawl out 

 of the cracks in the cliffs, and that was the 

 beginning of the end of rattlesnakes in 

 Oregon. It was awful! 



But he had a neighbor by the name of 

 Wilkins, an old man now, and a recent 

 candidate for Governor of Oregon, who was 

 equal to the occasion. He sent back to the 

 States and had some black, bristly, razor- 



