16 YEARBOOK. PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



ing measuring five and a half by four inches, through which the hving 

 reptiles were dropped into the box. This opening was protected by a 

 sliding, padlocked door, eight by five and a half inches, bearing a similar 

 aperture covered with the screen inside and out. A handle was fast- 

 ened to the middle of the long upper side. Thus the box was equipped 

 with two padlocks for safety, and the captive snakes were provided 

 with plenty of air through the screened aperture and could be exam- 

 ined by looking through the opening of the sliding door when the long 

 glass side was turned toward the light. In this same illustration is 

 shown a long pair of tongs, specially designed for catching rattle- 

 snakes. They are of the type employed by both Messrs. Keitel and 

 Ochsner, and were made for us at Prairie Du Sac. These tongs are 

 simply two three-eighths inch iron rods, four feet long, united by a 

 pivot six inches from one end, the other ends of the rods being pro- 

 vided with wooden handles. The business or nipping ends of the tongs 

 are slightly flattened and are provided with corrugations on the inside 

 to insure a good hold on the slippery, squirming reptile. Later we 

 wound friction-tape on the ends of the tongs and found the grasp, 

 not only safer, but less liable to injure the skin of the reptile. We 

 would not advise the use of tongs made much shorter than four feet. 

 The box and tongs were entrusted to Mr. Dickinson. 



Mr. Tyrrell was charged with securing suitable notes and sketches 

 of the reptiles and their general surroundings, while the writer served as 

 photographer. Nothing else was carried by the party. I mention this 

 because the average person may consider one foolhardy to go inten- 

 tionally on a serious rattlesnake hunt without the well-known ''snake 

 medicine." This viewpoint was humorously stated in an article in 

 the "Register-Democrat" of Portage, Wisconsin, June 4th, 1923, when 

 it said, "What disturbs the scientific mind just now is how anyone can 

 have been so temerarious and rash as to rush into a snake den, of the 

 proportions described, without having been fortified within and with- 

 out with a supply of time-honored and world-approved snake medi- 

 cine, and, if the party was so equipped, the scientific mind would 

 eagerly inquire where the prophylactic was obtained." 



Arriving at Madison, accommodations for ourselves and the "snake- 

 box" were secured on one of the motor-busses running from that city 

 to Prairie Du Sac, our immediate destination. The first indication of 

 the novelty of our trip was manifested by the officials and passengers 

 of the bus line, who were very inquisitive about that padlocked box 

 and who hardly credited their ears when they learned its use. They 

 continued to look at us askance, as if we should be confined in a lunatic 



