142 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



nished their food. These hilly- 

 regions aroimd the metronolis of 

 Texas today, in late years have 

 been entirely cleared of these 

 beasts, and Government Hill — the 

 lower part of which is still known 

 as "Rattlesnake Hill," Tobin Hill, 

 Laurel Heights, Prospect Hill, Ala- 

 mo Heights, Beacon Hill, Digno- 

 wity Hill, Knob Hill, and other 

 suburbs are now nearly overcrowd- 

 ed with elegant, up-to-date dwel- 

 lings and palatial residences, and 

 the surrounding country converted 

 into fertile fields and commercial 

 enterprises; and Texas in general, 



— but nowadays rarely — farmers, 

 hunters, , fishermen, outing parties 

 and others on trips over the 

 prairies or along river bottoms, 

 in the fields and forests, etc., are 

 likely to be bitten by a more or 

 less dangerous serpent or some 

 spider species, especially the small 

 and speckled vagabond or jumping 

 tarantula (' ' Latrodectus Mactams' ') 

 and a few other varieties of poison- 

 ous insects. 



A regular "hot-bed" of snakes 

 in the rear of San Antonio — 10 

 miles south — is the old Mitchell 

 Lagoon; but likely the dreaded 



Head of an Old Rattlk.sn'ake With Unusual Large Poison Fangs 



with its vast territory of over 

 two hundred thousand square miles, 

 has also been cleared of venomous 

 reptiles and poisonous insects of 

 all sorts during late years; due to 

 its miraculous rapid up-building 

 and immense cultivated plains. 

 Vast numbers of these reptiles 

 have been exterminated by hunt- 

 ers, birds and animals of prey, 

 and by professional reptile dealers. 

 But, of course, there still exist 

 large, secluded regions where the 

 dreaded rattler and moccasin re- 

 main unmolested, and occasionally 



rattlesnake is vciy rarely encounter- 

 ed as in former years, for reason 

 of the surrounding area being 

 converted all around into cultivated 

 fields. But the lake itself contains 

 in its tall jungles, hundreds and 

 more so-called "moccasins." These 

 snakes, however, at least the great- 

 er majority, arc not the genuine 

 and highly poisonous cotton-mouth 

 moccasin; they are an entirely 

 harmless variety of water-snake, 

 but of such fearful proportions 

 and appearance, that they are 

 enough to make the timid and un- 



