HINTS TO ADDER-SEEKERS 25 
I am tempted to go further with this digression to 
give an account of it. 
The adventure was the finding of my biggest 
adder. It was in a tract of ground overgrown with 
furze and thorn, at a spot not far from the turn- 
pike road that runs from Salisbury to Blandford. 
Having discovered that this spot, with an area of 
several hundred acres, teemed with interesting wild 
life, I made it a haunt for several weeks. I soon 
found out that it was a valuable game preserve 
and that the keeper had strict orders from the 
shooting tenant not to allow any person on the 
land. However, I approached him in the proper 
way, and he left me to enjoy myself in my own 
fashion. 
Never had I seen adders so abundant as at this 
spot, yet the keeper assured me that he had been 
trying for years to extirpate them, and often killed 
as many as half a dozen in a day. 
One morning, near the end of June, I found my 
big adder, and picking it up, held it suspended by 
the tip of its tail for nearly half an hour, until, 
exhausted with its vain wriggling, it allowed itself 
to hang limp and straight. Then I got out my 
tape-measure and set about the difficult task of 
getting the exact length; but the adder would not 
have it, for invariably when the tape was dropped 
at its side it drew itself up into a series of curves 
and defeated me. Tired of the long business, I set 
it down at length and stunned it with a rap on its 
head with my stick, then setting the tape on its 
