Snakes on Summer Ricks* yy 



worries him, seizes him by the middle and shakes 

 him, while the snake twists and hisses in vain. Some 

 dogs will not touch snakes, others seem to enjoy des- 

 troying them ; but it is noticeable that a dog which 

 previously has passed or avoided snakes, if once he 

 kills one, never passes another without slaughtering it. 

 A slime from the snake's skin froths over the dog's 

 jaws, and the sight is very unpleasant. 



I have often tried to discover how the snakes 

 get upon these summer ricks. Solomon could not 

 understand the ' way of a serpent upon the rock,' and 

 the way of a common snake up the summer rick 

 seems almost as inexplicable. Though the roof or 

 1 top ' is often very much out of the proper conical 

 shape, and sometimes sinks down nearly to a level, 

 the sides for a height of three or four feet are gene- 

 rally perpendicular, affording no projection of any 

 kind whatever ; hay is slippery, and the rick is, of 

 course, too large for the snake to encircle it. Yet 

 there they are commonly found to the intense alarm 

 of the labouring women, who never can get over 

 their dislike of snakes, though they see them so 

 frequently. The only way I can imagine by which 

 they climb up is by means of the holes, or galleries, 

 used by field-mice. In summer ricks there are some- 

 times many mice, and in pursuit of these the snake 



