CAMP. 93 



pillow. Another, thrusting his foot into his boot, was 

 horrorstricken on feeling it come upon a soft, yielding 

 mass. Dragging the boot off with all possible expedi- 

 tion, out dropped a huge ' rattler.' 



A once dear friend, lost sight of since the Avar of re- 

 bellion, was returning with a party from a long and labo- 

 rious exploring expedition. They camped on the ' Nueces 

 Eiver,' only twelve miles from Fort Inge, then considered 

 the western boundary of civilisation. On the long hard 

 trip my friend had abandoned the habit of changing his 

 dress for the night ; but, being so near to ' white people,' 

 he determined to treat himself to a civilised sleep, and to 

 this end arranged his person in a long night-shirt. He 

 had been asleep some time when he was partially awa- 

 kened by a cold sensation down his back. Thinking, in 

 his nearly unconscious state, that it was rain, he moved 

 his position and fell asleep. Again he was partially 

 awakened to repeat the process. The third time he was 

 roused more fully. The moon was shining brightly, and 

 he was just wondering where the water could come from, 

 when he felt the cold clammy touch on his back, and a 

 sensation as if a snake were fitting itself against his spine. 

 With a wild yell he sprang to his feet, and rushed from 

 the tent, bursting out the whole front, and was only 

 stopped in his flight by getting his bare feet full of cactus 

 spines. The snake was against the bare skin, and was 

 carried in the folds of the shirt outside the tent, where it 

 fell, and was found and killed by the aroused party. 



It was a very large ' rattler,' and appeared stupid, 

 either from cold or fright, and made no attempt at resist- 

 ance. 'Joe' used afterwards to declare that no money 

 could tempt him again to sleep when in camp in a night- 

 shirt. 



A bedstead is a sure protection against the too inti- 

 mate nocturnal visits of this reptile, and also of an animal 

 apparently insignificant, but whose attacks are more 

 dreaded by hunters in some portions of the plains than 



