338 The Rattle Snake. 



that region. I found the opinion universally prevalent among the in- 

 habitants there, that the leaves of the white ash were highly offensive to 

 the rattle snake. Several persons of respectability assured me that 

 the rattle snake was never found on land where the white ash grows, 

 that it was the uniform practice among hunters, as well as others, 

 whose business led them to traverse the woods in the summer months, 

 to stuff their shoes and boots, and frequently their pockets also, with 

 white ash leaves, as a preventive of the bite of the rattle snake, 

 and that they had never known or heard of any person being bitten 

 who had used this precaution. 



Sometime in the month of August, I went with Mr. T. Kirtland 

 and Dr. C. Dutton, then residing at Poland, to the Mahoning, for the 

 purpose of shooting deer, at a place where they were in the habit of 

 coming into the river, to feed on the moss attached to the stones in 

 the shoal water. We took our watch station on an elevated part of 

 the bank, fifteen or twenty yards from the edge of the water. About 

 an hour after we had commenced our watch, instead of a deer, we 

 discovered a large rattle snake, which, as it appeared, had left his den, 

 in the rocks beneath us, and was slowly advancing across a smooth, 

 narrow sand beach towards the water. Upon hearing our voices, 

 or for some other cause, he stopped and lay stretched out with his 

 head near the water. It occurred to me, that an opportunity now 

 offered to try the virtues of the white ash leaves. Requesting the 

 gentlemen to keep, in my absence, a watch over our subject, I went 

 immediately in search of the leaves, and on a piece of low ground 

 thirty or forty rods back from the river, I soon found, and by the aid 

 of my hunting knife, procured a small white ash sapling eight or ten 

 feet in length, and with a view to make the experiment more satis- 

 factory, I cut another sapling of the sugar maple, and with these 

 wands returned to the scene of action. In order to cut off a retreat 

 to his den, I approached the snake in his rear. As soon as I came 

 within about seven or eight feet of him, he quickly threw his body 

 into a coil, elevated his head eight or ten inches, and brandishing his 

 tongue, " gave note of preparation" for combat. I first presented 

 him the white ash, placing the leaves upon his body. He instantly 

 dropped his head to the ground, unfolded his coil, rolled over upon his 

 back, writhed and twisted his whole body into every form but that of 

 a coil, and appearing to be in great anguish. Satisfied with the trial 

 thus far made, I laid by the white ash. The rattle snake immediate- 

 ly rigkied, and placed himself in the same menacing attitude as be- 



