CONCERNING SNAKES. 



18 3 



" The snake repeated its tactics, but it was easy enough to keep out of . way. 

 By and by he caught the white gleam of its belly, and he knew that his blot were 

 telling. So he rained them faster and faster, and in a few minutes the reptile was 

 as dead as a door-nail. He said the snake, a short distance below its head, was as 

 big around as his leg above the knee. He cut off the rattles, and kept them for 

 many years. I saw and counted them." 



"How many?" 



" Thirty-two." 



[I may state, parenthetically, that the story told by Dick Brownell is strictly 

 true. Mr. Hall killed a rattlesnake with thirty-two rattles, as described, in the State 

 of Illinois, in 1842.] 



A PRODUCT OF OUR OWN COUNTRY. 



" I never saw any as large as that," said Mr. Godkin, " though one of them that 

 buried his fangs in my finger had half as many rattles." 



" What did you do for the bite ? " 



" I drank nearly a pint of brandy." 



"At what time of the year was it?" 



" Quite early in summer." 



" You probably would have done as well without any medicine at all, for the 

 rattlesnake's bite is not very deadly except between the first of August and the time 

 he goes into winter quarters. You know how sluggish he is, and that he never bite* 

 without warning, and then only when he is disturbed; but the cobra, for instance 

 comes crawling into a hut when its inmates are asleep, and lets fly with that hooded 

 head and his bursting poison-sacs, the instant he gets a chance, and his bite is 

 aeadly at all times." 



