THE SNAKE. 207 



their boles, and stepped from branch to branch, 

 every now and then getting an imperfect sight of 

 the snake. Sometimes I headed him, and some- 

 times I was behind him, as he rose and sank, and 

 lurked in the muddy water. During all this time, 

 he never once attempted to spring at me, because 

 I took care to manoeuvre in a way not to alarm him. 

 At last, having observed a favourable opportunity, 

 I made a thrust at him with the lance ; but I did it 

 in a bungling manner, for I only gave him a slight 

 wound. I had no sooner done this, than he instantly 

 sprang at my left buttock, seized the Russia sheet- 

 ing trousers with his teeth, and coiled his tail round 

 my right arm. All this was the work of a moment. 

 Thus accoutred, I made my way out of the swamp, 

 while the serpent kept his hold of my arm and 

 trousers with the tenacity of a bulldog. 



As many travellers are now going up and down 

 the world in quest of zoological adventures, I could 

 wish to persuade them that they run no manner of 

 risk in being seized ferociously by an American 

 racer snake, provided they be not the aggressors : 

 neither need they fear of being called to an ac- 

 count for intruding upon the amours of the rattle- 

 snake (see Jameson's Journal for June, 1827); 

 which amours, by the way, are never consummated 

 in the manner there described. The racer's exploits 

 must evidently have been invented long ago, by 

 some anxious old grandmother, in the back woods 

 of the United States, to deter her grandchildren 

 from straying into the wilds. The account of the 

 rattlesnake's amours is an idle fabrication as old as 



