my imagination, I am sure the creature measured 

 six feet. His neck, just behind the jaws, was 

 nearly the size of a broom-handle, which meant 

 a long, hard length curved out in the ferns be- 

 hind. It was a male ; I could teU by the peculiar 

 musk on the air, an odor like cut cucumbers. 



Fully a minute we eyed each other. Then I 

 took a step forward. The glittering head rose 

 higher. Off in the ferns there beat a warning 

 tattoo — the loud whir of the snake's tail against 

 a skunk-cabbage leaf. 



In my hand was a slender dogwood switch 

 that I had been poking into the holes of the 

 digger-wasps up the hillside. If one thing more 

 than another will turn a snake tail to in a hurry 

 it is the song of a switch. Expecting to see this 

 overbold fellow jump out of his new skin and 

 lunge off into the swale, I leaned forward and 

 made the stick" sing under his nose. But he did 

 not jump or budge. He only bent back out of 

 range, swayed from side to side, and drew more 

 of his black length out into the low grass to 

 better his position. 



The lidless eyes and scale-cased face of a snake 

 might seem incapable of more than one set 

 [153] 



