34 The Poets and Nature. 



over, in the matter of natural history they follow each other 

 with remarkable fidelity, and nearly all the errors of later 

 poets are to be traced, by the actual language used, back to 

 the elder. The serpent, therefore, continues to be "deceit- 

 ful," and the adder " deaf," and snakes generally are said to 

 be " slimy," to leap upon their victims, to wound with their 

 tongues, or sting with their tails. Like them there is nothing 

 for fatal and determined malignity : it is death to enrage them. 



Yet, how very different are the facts. Even in my own 

 casual acquaintance with venomous species I have learnt 

 indeed, the first experience was enough to teach me what 

 poor, helpless, timid, destructible creatures they are. 



When living on the shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, 

 I used to go hunting for rattlesnakes with a forked stick. 

 The suicidal creatures give you but small trouble in "hunt- 

 ing," for as soon as you come near them they spring their 

 alarum. "Here I am," the reptile calls out. So, guided 

 by the sound, you discover under a tuft of sage-brush the 

 object of your quest, and in spite of 



"The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake," 



you proceed to fix it with the fork, and then with the heel 

 of the boot or a stone to kill it, cutting off its rattles as a 

 trophy. The diversion at first even suggested cruelty to 

 me : for the snake had no chance whatever, and made no 

 effort worth calling such to escape. But this foreshore was 

 the favourite summer bathing-resort of the residents of Salt 

 Lake City, and as the children wandered about in all direc- 

 tions picking flowers, the danger to life was so considerable 

 (as had been disastrously proved), that the killing of rattle- 

 snakes became as much a public service as the destruction 

 of other venomous species undertaken, for instance, by the 

 Government of India is considered elsewhere. But when 

 I hear any one speak of the terrors of the rattlesnake, I know 

 they have never gone hunting them. 



