164 TEXAS NATUEE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCJES. 



Also, an intimate friend, 1 

 Hon. John Wickeland (lately 

 prominent City Alderman of San 

 Antonio, and formerly owner of a 

 large cattle ranch and pastures at 

 the Martinez settlement) some few 

 years ago, during a dispute 

 whether the rattler "swallows" 

 its young in danger time, sent me, 

 by request, the following interest- 

 ing letter, and his observations are 

 absolutely reliable: 



"Answering your, request, I wil 

 make the following statement: 

 About fifteen years ago,, while I 

 was driving some cattle with a 

 German neighbor, Adolph Real, 

 Sr., we were stopping on a hill to 

 cook our dinner. I wont to a trash - 

 pile for some kindling wood and 

 noticed a number of young snakes, 

 about eight or ten inches long, dis- 

 appearing in the trash; and heard 

 a rattlesnake rattle. After start- 

 ing the fire I set fire to the pile, 

 and both of us watched it. In a 

 short while a big rattlesnake ap- 

 peared, which I killed. At the same 

 time a second one came out, which 

 Mr. Real killed, and still another 

 came out, which was also killed, 

 making three in all. Bach one was 

 about three to three pi^.d one-half 

 feet long and extraordinarily 

 thick, which induced me to cut 

 them open with my knife. We 

 found eighteen youngr ones in the 

 first, eight in the second, and 

 twenty-two in the third, making 

 forty-eight young snakes. Bach 

 one tried to escape, but we killed 

 them all. Each one had a little 

 rattle at the end of its tail, and 

 also tried to bite at us. 



About thirty-nine years ago, in 

 1862, shortly after starting in the 

 sheep business, I was herding the 

 flock myself, and one day met a 

 snake apparently asleep, with a 

 number of young ones around her, 

 when all of a sudden they noticed 

 me and disappeared through the 

 old snake's mouth, and after kill- 

 ing her I found them inside. ' ' 



About the largest rattlesnake I 



have seen in nature, was near a 

 ranch , north of the Helotes, in a 

 picturesque and hilly region, at 

 the farm of a Mexican Cavallero. 

 It was later seen dangling — strung 

 up with some fence wire — high 

 up on the cross-bar of a high pas- 

 ture ffate. In this position ,and 

 after the Mexican had posted him- 

 self for "un retrato con bibora de 

 cascavel" — close behind the huge 

 snake, the photograph seen repro- 

 duced herein was prepared (luck- 

 ily, having a trusted camera with 

 me, at this occasion). In the rear 

 of this view is seen a small adobe 

 house, used at the time as a coun- 

 try store, post-office and tele- 

 phone station, (26 miles northwest 

 of San Antonio), close to the Ban- 

 dera road, and in close proximity 

 of a two story dwelling house, 

 which, by the way, was built by 

 the Mexican himself, of hard rock 

 and adobe, in 1865 ; and it is stand- 

 there to this day, undisturbed, 

 close to a large corn field and 

 pecan grove, and a fine rivulet, 

 surrounded by evergreen forests 

 and most pisturesque mountain 

 sceneries of the old Geronimo val- 

 ley regions and the famous Gal- 

 lagher cattle ranch districts. 



The monstrous reptile, depicted, 

 must have been a very old speci- 

 men of olden days, and the Mexi- 

 can (a well educated and english 

 speaking man) told me such old 

 reptiles were about exterminated 

 nowadays, and those left are 

 usually encountered only in their 

 remote jungle haunts; or in old: 

 fashioned farm fences — where this 

 rare spesimen also was killed! 

 Some of this snake's head parts,' 

 and parts of its body were some- 

 what mutilated; but the jaws and 

 other parts were intact, and 

 showed on closer inspection, sev- 

 eral enormous large poison fangs, 

 and correspondingly large venom 

 bladders. Later the fine orna- 

 mented skin of this snake was 

 tanned and sold by the Mexican 

 to a local reptile establishment. 



