Ill THE LAKE DISTRICT 91 



any way exposing themselves to a sudden attack ; 

 secondly, owing to the small size of the mouth 

 in even the largest Black Snake, they are unable 

 to get the grip necessary for injecting the poison 

 unless they can strike on to the bare skin or 

 through very thin cloth. The most common way 

 of getting badly bitten is on the finger, as here 

 the snake can get a firm grip. Of course in the 

 vast majority of cases the snake will make off 

 at the approach of a human being, but they also 

 have an unpleasant habit of lying out in the sun 

 along a road or track, and when one comes upon 

 them in this situation they frequently lie per- 

 fectly still, and the danger of treading on them 

 is very great, as they will strike either forwards 

 or backwards with amazing rapidity. The biggest 

 Black Snake is, however, easily killed by striking 

 it with a supple stick or sapling anywhere behind 

 the head or along the back, and it is always 

 advisable to go to work sideways at the animal, 

 as they cannot strike sideways, and are slow at 

 turning. It is astonishing how a fairly hard blow 

 on the back will entirely disable a snake and rob 

 it of its spring, though of course the muscular 

 activity will continue for a long time afterwards, 

 even though the snake is fatally injured, a fact 

 which has given rise to the superstition that 

 a snake killed in the day never dies till sundown. 

 From the Great Lake I had determined to 

 push out westwards to Lake St. Clair, a large and 

 exceedingly deep lake lying about fifty miles away, 



