214 LAWSON'S HISTORY 



whatsoever they wound with it, which is armed at 

 the end with a horny substance, like a cock's spur. 

 This is their weapon. I have heard it credibly re- 

 ported, by those who said they were eye-witnesses 

 that a small locust tree, about the thickness of a 

 man's arm, being struck by one of these snakes at 

 ten o'clock in the morning, then verdant and flour- 

 ishing, at four in the afternoon was dead, and the 

 leaves red and withered. Doubtless, be it how it 

 will, they are very venomous. I think the Indians 

 do not pretend to cure their wounds. 



Of water snakes there are four sorts. The first 

 is the horn snake's color, though less. The next 

 is a very long snake, differing in color, and will 

 make nothing to swim over a river a league wide. 

 They hang upon birches and other trees by the 

 water side. I had the fortune once to have one 

 of them leap into my boat, as I was going up a 

 narrow river ; the boat was full of mats, which I 

 was glad to take out, to get rid of him. They are 

 reckoned poisonous. A third is much of an Eng- 

 lish adder's color, but always frequents the salts, 

 and lies under the drift sea weed, where they are 

 in abundance, and are accounted mischievous 

 when they bite. The last is of a sooty, black col- 

 or, and frequents ponds and ditches. What his 

 qualities are I cannot tell. 



Of the swamp snakes there are three sorts, 

 which are very near akin to the water snakes, 

 and may be ranked amongst them. The belly of 

 the first is of a cannination or pink color ; his 



