222 THE RATTLESNAKE. 



SNAKES : THE RATTLESNAKE. 



Throughout North America there are no small number anc 

 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 yea] 

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

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

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

 giving rattles with which they are armed. Even quadruped? 

 are alarmed 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 borr 

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

 within striking 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 musl 

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

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

 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 rt 

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

 growing 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 



