DRAWING A RATTLESNAKE. 65 



poor man had drunk himself into an everlasting sleep. I made 

 a good sketch of his head, and left the house, while the ladies 

 were engaged in preparing the funeral dinner, 



" August 12. Left this morning to visit a beautiful lake, six 

 miles distant, where we are told there are many beautiful birds. 

 The path led through a grove of rich magnolia woods. On the 

 way we saw a rich-coloured spider at work rolling up a horse- 

 fly he had caught in his web. He spirted a stream of fluid from 

 his mouth, at the same time rolling the fly in it, until he looked 

 like the cocoon of a silkworm ; and having finished his work, 

 returned to the centre of his nest. This is no doubt the way 

 he puts up his food when he is not hungry, and provides for the 

 future. 



"August 25. Finished drawing a very fine specimen of a 

 rattlesnake, which measured five. feet and seven inches, weighed 

 six and a quarter pounds, and had ten rattles. Anxious to give 

 it a position most interesting to a naturalist, I put it in that 

 which the reptile commonly takes when on the point of sticking 

 madly with its fangs. I had examined many before, and especially 

 the position of the fangs along the superior jawbones, but had 

 never seen one showing the whole exposed at the same time ; 

 and having before this supposed that it was probable that those 

 lying enclosed below the upper one, in most specimens, were 

 to replace the upper one, which I thought might drop periodi- 

 cally as the animal changed its skin and rattles. However, on 

 dissection of these from the ligament by which they were 

 attached to the jawbones, I found them strongly and I think 

 permanently fixed there as follows. Two superior, or next to 

 the upper lips (I speak of one side of the jaws only), were well 

 connected at their bases and running parallel their whole length, 

 with apertures on the upper and lower sides of their bases to 

 i-eceive the poisoK connectedly, and the discharging one a short 

 distance from the sharp point on the inner part of the fangs. 

 The next two fangs, about a quarter of an inch below, connected 

 and received in the same manner, but with only one base 

 aperture on the lower side of each, and the one at the point 

 which issues the poison to the wound. The fifth, rather smaller, 

 is also about a quarter of an inch below. The scales of the 

 belly, to the under part of the mouth, numbered one hundred 



