388 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



question often, seldom have I found any one able to 

 vouch for its vahie. 



"Did you ever test it out with a living snake?" has 

 been my constant inquiry and the answer has uniformly 

 lieen "No." 



"Did you ev- 

 er hear of any 

 one who had 

 tested its val- 

 ue?" was my 

 next inquiry, 

 which ninety- 

 nine times out 

 of a hundred 

 brought t (h e 

 same answer, 

 "No." 



The odd man 

 has always said 

 "Yes. I heard 

 of a man who 

 said he knew a 

 man who tried 

 it out." "Yes, 

 yes," I have 

 answered eag- 

 erly, "what 

 happened? Did 

 it turn the 

 snake?" "Oh," 

 he said, "it 

 turned the 

 snake all right" 

 was the ready 

 response. 



Out of hundreds of inquiries I never was able to find 

 a single person who had first hand information on this 

 subjiect. So I finally began to carry a hair rope on my 

 saddle horn intending to demonstrate the truth or falsity 

 of that piece of folklore in a way that would admit of 

 no possible question. 



Spending from three to five months each summer on 

 horseback in the far West I deemed it an easy matter to 

 have plenty of opportunities for such a test nevertheless 

 no sooner had I started in on the plan than the rattle- 

 snakes all seemed to have disappeared from sight and in 

 six years of horseback travel I "met up" with but half a 

 dozen rattlers, two in Arizona, one in New Mexico, two 

 in California and one in Utah. 



The New Mexico chap was a lusty fellow and leaving 

 the Forest Ranger who was with me to hold him at bay I 

 chased back to where we had left our horses only to dis- 

 cover that the hair rope was gone, someone having taken 

 it from my saddle to tie a horse in camp and I had left 

 without it. It was ten miles to camp so we missed this 

 chance. 



The next snake I "met up" with was in the Mogollon 

 Mi>iint.iin> of Arizona, but his snakeship was in such a 

 rough, rocky, lava formation that we could not lay the 



n 



a 



line 

 the 

 must 



An unusually fine specimen fully six feet in length and as large about the "waist" 

 man's arm. Of all the rattler tribe, the diamond back is the most subtle and savage, 

 of them can be coaxed to eat in captivity and they are always ready to fight. 



rope where it must either be crossed or stop his progress. 



The third got clear away from us under a large rock 



but the fourth and fifth in the high Sierras of California 



and the last in southern Utah each submitted to the test 



and proved the 

 belief in the 

 hair rope as a 

 safety first for 

 rattlers was not 

 well founded 

 for they each 

 went over the 

 rofje wherever 

 they met it. 

 Great care was 

 exercised not 

 to disturb or 

 tease each 

 snake in order 

 that his condi- 

 tion might be 

 as nearly nor- 

 mal as possible. 

 We laid the 

 rope 

 straight 

 where 

 snake 

 either cross or 

 go around the 

 end to avoid it. 

 in large and 

 small rings 

 about him and 

 even when he 

 was moving from us without any attempt on our part to 

 direct his way or annoy him the rope was thrown in front 

 of him over and over again without hindering his move- 

 ments in the least. He went ."over the top" each time 

 with absolutely no hesitation or reluctance. 



Of several photographs taken we secured one or two 

 rather good ones showing the snake in the act of crossing 

 the rope which, by the way, was an exceeding rough 

 hairy one, built to scratch if ever a hair rope was. 



Several mien whose belief in the theory was almost 

 sublime insisted that the snake went over the rope by 

 elevating his body in the form of an inverted U so that 

 no part touched the rope. The picture shows this not to 

 have been the case, nor did we observe any such effort 

 on the part of the snake. If this action was true it of 

 course knocked on the head the whole theory of safety 

 inside the rope. Thus has systematic investigation and 

 observation wiped out another myth of the plainsmen. 

 Cast into the discard along with the equally prevalent 

 notion regarding the family and familiar rtelations said 

 to exist between rattlers, Prairie dogs and owls. 



Not long ago a well known writer made the statement 

 that although he had spent many years in portions of the 

 United States presumed to be well populated with rattle- 



Photograph by J. F. Street. 

 A DIAMOND BACKED RATTLER READY FOR BUSINESS 



as a 

 Few 



fl 



