UATTLE SNAKES. llo 



And are they there in a slate of torpidity ? Pro- 

 bably not all the time. In those deep, and 

 almost unfathomable recesses, they probably find 

 appropriate food, and when the power of propa- 

 gation is set into operation, they emerge from the 

 great deeps of the lake, to enjoy the genial influ- 

 ence of the sun, and to afford food and security 

 for their offspring. 



LETTER XLI. 



Western Region, August j 1820o 

 My Dear Sir, 



I HAVE had an opportunity of seeing the rattle 

 snake, a serpent peculiar to America, and whose 

 natural history is greatly involved in fable and 

 mj'Stery. Its venomous qualities have been some- 

 what exaggerated, and the antidotes against its 



I poison have been much misrepresented. It has a 

 brown, broad head ; the jaws are furnished with 

 small, sharp teeth ; four fangs in the upper jaw, 



( incurvated, large, and pointed ; at the base of 

 each, a round orifice opening into a cavity, that 

 near the end of the tooth appears again in foriji 

 of a small channel ; these teeth may be erected 

 or compressed. When in the act of biting, they 

 force out of a gland near their roots, the fatal 



