THIRTY TEAKS JL HUHTEB. 197 



concealed. I halted at a little distance, when it 

 again raised its head erect, and stood eyeing me. 

 As I turned to run, the snake followed me, but 

 retreated when I advanced toward it. In this man- 

 ner we chased each other alternately across the field 

 three times, when I picked up a club and killed it. 

 The hoop-snake, or horn-snake is very rare. It is 

 about five feet long, aud an inch and a quarter in 

 thickness. It is similar in color to a yellow rattle- 

 snake, but the light spots are less dingy. Its tail 

 terminates in a black horn, four or five inches in 

 length, and very sharp at the point. When preparing 

 to make an attack, it bends itself into a circular form, 

 and rolls over the ground like a hoop, striking its 

 spike with graat force into the object of its attack. 

 So deadly is the venom contained in this spike or 

 horn, that it is fatal even to trees. In one instance 

 with which I was cognizant, one of these snakes 

 rolled at a man, who avoided it, by stepping to one 

 side, and the snake, being under such velocity that 

 iJt could not turn, struck its horn into an elm tree 

 with such force that it could not extricate it. The 

 suake died, hanging there, in two weeks, and the 

 tree was lifeless at the end of a month, Notwith- 

 standing the deadly nature of a rattlesnake's bite, 

 they are easily destroyed by dogs which have been 

 taught how to attack them. The dog seizes it by the 

 middle, and with a few vigorous shakes scatters it in 

 fragments. If the dog should be bitten, it immedi- 

 ately digs a hole in the ground, in which it lies until 

 the swelling disappears. I have always found this 



*17 



