304 CURIOUS BELIEFS REGARDING SNAKES. 



Near to the above place was a reservation of 

 Tanawanda Indians. The tribe was tolerably nu- 

 merous in those days, and all of them that I have 

 spoken to had firm faith in the efficacy of white 

 ash bark. 



In early days of colonization, this part of Western 

 New York, also of many of the adjoining States, 

 was literally overrun with rattlesnakes, but the intro- 

 duction of the omnivorous feeding hog, soon reduced 

 their numbers. In a cave discovered in Rattle- 

 snake Hill, near Coomer Settlement, and also in 

 several similar places near the popular summer re- 

 sort of Baden, Southern Indiana, I saw bushels of 

 rattlesnake bones. Why these reptiles should 

 assemble in such cavities, and there resign their 

 lives, is a question that I have never seen elucidated. 



There are two distinct species of the rattlesnake to 

 be found in the United States, the timber and the 

 prairie. It is of the first that I have been writing, 

 the other familiarly known by the red-men as 

 massasawga is very numerous in the prairie 

 country, its usual length is about eighteen inches, 

 while its colour is a dusky brown black. Its bite, 

 although very painful, is seldom fatal, and large 

 doses of whiskey, administered freely, will soon give 

 relief to either man or quadruped. 



The picture of the hoop-snake, which " Baralong " 

 alludes to, I saw on the confines of Parish, when on 

 my way from Friedel-ford to Rhinoster Sprint. It 

 was painted by the well-known explorer, mineral- 

 ogist, and artist, Mr. Baines, who did more for the 

 colony of the Cape of Good Hope than any man of 

 his day. He was the first to discover gold in that 

 country ; but the wise men of his generation laughed 

 with scorn when he told them of its existence with- 

 in easy access of their frontier. The Cape Town 

 Museum possesses several specimens of the produc- 

 tions of this gentleman's brush, and Mr. White, a 



