ON THE PRAIRIE 29 



It is, of course, however, both a dangerous 

 and a disagreeable neighbor, and one of its 

 annoying traits is the fondness it displays 

 for crawling into a hut or taking refuge 

 among the blankets left out on the ground. 

 Except in such cases men are rarely in dan- 

 ger from it, unless they happen to be 

 stooping over, as was the case with one of 

 my cow-boys who had leaned over to pick 

 up a log, and was almost bitten by a snake 

 which was underneath it; or unless the 

 snake is encountered while stalking an ani- 

 mal. Once I was creeping up to an ante- 

 lope under cover of some very low sage- 

 brush so low that I had to lie flat on my 

 face and push myself along with my hands 

 and feet. While cautiously moving on in 

 this way I was electrified by hearing almost 

 by my ears the well-known, ominous 

 " whir-r-r " of a rattlesnake, and on hastily 

 glancing up there was the reptile, not ten 

 feet away from me, all coiled up and wait- 

 ing. I backed off and crawled to one side, 

 the rattler turning its head round to keep 



