TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 143 



'nitiated hunter or visitor jump 

 "a mile high," and the writer 

 recollects an instance when a hunt- 

 ing companion at this old Indian 

 Jake came to the camp with flushed 

 face and perspiring all over, hav- 

 ing been surprised and received 

 such a fright in consequence of 

 having met one of these "horrible 

 moeassins." He brought a dead 

 specimen to camp, but I very 

 soon convinced him that it 

 was a harmless variety of water- 

 snake, , by opening the reptile's 



All varieties have extra large venom 

 fangs and venom receptacles, and 

 how they appear in a prepared 

 skeleton head, is nicely shown in 

 the photograph below, which I 

 prepared some years ago in the 

 mountainous regions of San Geroni- 

 mo, near Gallagher's ranch, and 

 at the farm of Edmund Hender- 

 son, a near relative and old Texas 

 pioneer and at one time Master 

 Mechanic of the S. P. R. R. Co. 

 This specimen is not only a 

 rare one, but it is most interesting 



Skeleton of Above Sn'ake Head After it Had Been Placed in an Ant Hole 



mouth with a stick and showing 

 him the entire absence of the venom 

 bladder and any poison fang. 



These snakes only have a large 

 row of grab-teeth in the upper 

 and lower jaws, but the long and 

 curved venom fangs, seen in the 

 genuine moccasin, are abs-^nt. Then 

 they are much larger, but just as 

 bold looking, and in color and 

 general appearance they very close- 

 ly resemble the cotton-mouth moc- 

 casin, and therefore one has to be 

 on the lookout. 



With the rattlesnake, which is 

 entirely a land-snake, it is different. 



otherwise, and mostly for the 

 reason of having been prepared 

 solely by the pesky and poisonous 

 Texas red ant. It came this way: 

 During an outing, early one 

 morning, whilst I Mas enjoying 

 a walk, (with gun and dog, of 

 course) admiring the intensely pic- 

 turesque forests and ■ mountainous 

 formations around Geronimo — the 

 old haunts of the savage Indian 

 and v/ild beasts of days gone by, 

 I happened to come to the home 

 and store of a Mexican farmer, 

 named Hernandez, an old pio- 

 neer Texan and ear'y settler of 



