68 HISTORY OF OHIO. 



rather skeletons, of fifty individuals of the family of elk, lay 

 scattered about on the surface, which the Indians had left 

 here. We had an abundance of deer, and they are numerous 

 still in the newer parts of the state. They are the common 

 red deer. 



Our serpents are rattlesnakes, of two species, one is a 

 large one, the male black and the female yellow. These inhab- 

 ited all this state, especially the hilly regions, and they are 

 there now. The small spotted rattle snake, dwelt in the north- 

 western corner of the state, in the prairies there. It is scarce- 

 ly twenty inches in length and is quite venomous. Cap- 

 tain James Riley encountered not a few of them, while trav- 

 eling in that region. Wherever hogs run in the woods, they 

 destroy the rattle snake. At an early period of our settle- 

 ment, the large rattlesnake was found along the Scioto, in 

 considerable numbers, but the newly settled inhabitants, as- 

 certaining that these serpents burrowed in a large stone mound 

 a few miles northeastwardly from Circleville, after the ser- 

 pents had gone into their winter quarters, fenced in the 

 mound, and, as the serpents came out of it in the spring of the 

 next year, they killed them, so that it is rare thing now, 

 to find one in this region. Five miles above Columbus, on the 

 main branch of the Scioto river, there was, formerly, a den of 

 serpents, of the rattlesnake family, and a Mr. Thomas Back 

 us, who then owned the land there, endeavored to destroy 

 the serpents, by keeping a fire, during the winter months, 

 in a cave, where the snakes had entered their den. This 

 expedient, not succeeding, he fenced in the den, and put a 

 large number of hogs into it. This effected his object, and 

 very few of these serpents are now found at, or near the 

 place. 



Why the bite of this serpent should not injure the hog, we 

 do not know, unless it be, on the principle, that oil is an 

 antidote to the poison of the serpent. The oil of olives, is 

 known to be an antidote, and the fat of the hog may be so, 

 likewise. 



The hog is fond of eating the serpent, and his poison is no 



