74 WASTE-LAND WANDEBINGS. 



intention of leaving its comfortable quarters perma- 

 nently, and before my boat bad drifted balf its length, 

 had reappeared and was resting its head and neck upon 

 the slab. As I made no offensive motion, it soon crawled 

 again to its old place, but never, for a second, lost sight 

 of me. The snake in returning so promptly, after show- 

 ing itself a coward not five minutes before, was thor- 

 oughly contradictory, and I could only think that here 

 again we have a mental characteristic that is remark- 

 ably well developed in man. 



Next to the mooted point, the maximum length of 

 a water- snake, or of any species of serpent, is that of 

 the creature's age. My neighbors seem to believe that 

 death only comes through violence. While I have been 

 altogether unsuccessful in my efforts to determine these 

 points, I have found that the common water -snake 

 grows more and more slowly each year, and when the 

 supposed maximum size is reached — about six feet — 

 a considerable length of years is yet before the creat- 

 ure, if no ill-luck crosses its path. A snake of this 

 species, and of about the length mentioned, lived un- 

 der a stone wall in Laurie's mill-pond for seventeen 

 years. 



Judging from his dingy colors, his sluggish move- 

 ments when in the water, and apparent love of quiet, 

 the snake I saw to-day had probably weathered a quarter 

 of a century, and long may he continue to flourish ! 



It is an interesting fact that wherever the early set- 

 tlers chose a site for a village or laid out a highway, 

 they found that the Indians had preceded them. Prob- 



