222 THE RATTLESNAKE. 



SNAKES : — THE RATTLESNAKE. 



Throughout North America there are no small number and 

 variety of venomous snakes. The rattlesnakes are perhaps 

 the most numerous, frequenting all parts of the country, 

 though they generally keep to the uninhabited portions. 

 They are found on the northern shores of Lake Superior — 

 though the ground is covered for several months in the year 

 with snow— and often appear in the regions to the west, in 

 the same latitude, up to the Rocky Mountains. They would 

 render some districts uninhabitable, were it not for the signal- 

 giving rattles with which they are armed. Even quadrupeds 

 are alai-med at the sound, and endeavour to make their escape 

 from them ; and horses, it is said, lately arrived from Europe, 

 show the same dread of these deadly serpents as do those born 

 in the country, so that nothing will induce them to pass 

 within strikins: distance of the creatures. 



The wanderer through the forest starts" back with dismay 

 as he comes suddenly upon one of these venomous reptiles, and 

 hears its ominous rattle when too near to escape. He must 

 muster all his nerve, and strike it with his stick as it springs ; 

 for a wound from its fangs will, as he knows, bring certain 

 death, far away from human aid. 



The rattlesnake, like others of its tribe in cold regions, 

 hibernates in winter ; and as the autumn comes on, seeks 

 some convenient crevice in which to pass the cold season — 

 generally in the neighbourhood of marshy ground, where it 

 can cover itself up in the masses of a peculiar species of moss 

 gi^owing in such situations. The reptiles are here, during the 

 winter, frequently hunted out and destroyed. At that time, 

 too, their bite is much less dangerous than in the summer — 



