45§ 



RECREA TION. 



SNAKE BITES. 



PERCY SELOUS. 



I have read with interest A. M. Kenney's 

 remarks under the above heading. I have 

 kept venomous snakes in captivity for many 

 years and studied them, so perhaps my ex- 

 perience may be of value. 



Mr. Kenney's statement that the poison 

 is dangerous when taken into the mouth and 

 stomach is only conditional; by which I 

 mean that unless there be abrasion there 

 is not any danger. I do not say it would 

 be really healthful to drink rattlesnake poi- 

 son, but I should not hesitate for a moment 

 to suck the wounds made by a large rattle- 

 snake, if there was no lesion of my lips or 

 mouth. Neither would I scruple to swallow 

 the venom. I have sucked and even swal- 

 lowed rattlesnake venom from a wound in- 

 flicted on my hand by a snake which I have 

 seen kill mice in half a minute and sparrows 

 in V/z minutes. 



While in South America I saw Indians 

 kill game with arrows poisoned with con- 

 centrated essence of venomous snake heads; 

 saw them taste the deadly stuff to judge of 

 its potency and I have eaten meat killed by 

 such arrows. I have seen large animals suc- 

 cumb in a short space of time to slight 

 wounds from these arrows; and have heard 

 the same facts from the Bushmen in South 

 Africa, with whom I have conversed on the 

 subject. Such knowledge may perhaps give 

 me more than ordinary confidence; but of 

 course the dangerous element remains in the 

 case of cracked lips or abrasion of the mu- 

 cous membrane. For the poison to act, it 

 must be introduced directly into the blood. 



My advice is to immediately lay the 

 wounds open deeply and suck the venom 

 out. Above all, one should not lose pres- 

 ence of mind. 



Everyone does not carry a hypodermic 

 syringe, but anyone can have a supply of 

 permanganate of potassium. Strychnine is 

 now considered the best antidote, but it can- 

 not be tampered with like the other stuff; 

 its use requires medical training. I have 

 pills of it made up for me, for an emergency; 

 and though I do not desire another dose of 

 rattlesnake poison, I should not fear the 

 consequences, should the exigency arise. 



Except in the case of the Opistoglyphs, 

 which are provided with grooved fangs, in- 

 stead of ducts, I do not think the passing 

 of the fang through cloth could wipe out 

 the poison. The orifice of the duct is near 

 the extremity, and the venom is injected di- 

 rectly through this aperture into the wound". 



It is far better to suck the poison out 

 than to fight it after it has gotten into the 

 circulation. 



The t&stimony has come from almost every 

 State in the Union and from all over Canada. 

 I have found it impossible to print all of the 

 letters. The enemies of the little red devil 

 have made out a strong case against him. 

 Now let us hear from his friends, if he has 

 any. Personally I always liked him and 

 have had lots of fun with him. I have many 

 a time sat on a log watching for deer when 

 a red squirrel has come chattering and 

 scolding along the same log until so near I 

 could almost put my hand on him. Finally, 

 when he has made out what I was, he has 

 gone scampering and swearing up the near- 

 est tree and has alarmed all the game within 

 a quarter of a mile. Notwithstanding this, 

 I never killed a red squirrel unless I needed 

 him for meat. Sometimes when he has 

 broken up my schemes, has waltzed up a 

 tree and run out on a limb, continuing his 

 scolding, I have, with a big Winchester bul- 

 let, cut the limb off between him and the 

 tree, just to take the conceit out of him; but 

 when he struck the ground he invariably 

 sailed up that tree, or another, and went on 

 with his abuse. 



He is a beautiful little creature and, not- 

 withstanding all his faults, I love him still. 



One correspondent said any man who had 

 eyer been in the woods much would know 

 the red squirrel was destructive to birds 

 and to gray squirrels. I have been hunting 

 for nearly 40 years, and have killed about 

 every kind of game on the continent. I 

 fancy, therefore, I know the red squirrel 

 about as well as any of the other chaps; but, 

 as I said in reply to Mr. Billings' first at- 

 tack on the red squirrel, I have never, per- 

 sonally, known of his destroying birds' 

 nests or of his attacking and injuring his 

 big gray uncle. Still I have no doubt, now, 

 that he does this; though it had escaped my 

 observation. There are many animals that 

 do a lot of mischief, and among them that 

 two-legged animal, known as the genus 

 homo, and we do not admit that all such ani- 

 mals should be killed at sight. We permit 

 some of them to live for the good they have 

 done or may do, or simply because they are 

 good looking and cheerful. Shall we not 

 allow the red squirrel to live for some of 

 these reasons? 



Again: If this little beast has any friends, 

 let them come up and say so. His enemies 

 have talked long enough and if any of my 

 friends who have written against him do not 

 see their letters printed in Recreation, they 

 may know it is because enough has already 

 been said on that side of the case. 



NOW LET THE RED SQUIRREL'S 

 FRIENDS HAVE THE ~FLOOR. 



The responses to my inquiry about the 

 red squirrel have been much more numer- 

 ous than I had any reason to anticipate. 



HOW TO KEEP MOTH OUT OF FURS. 



How can I poison mounted heads, rugs, 

 and clothing, to keep the moth out of them? 

 Reader, Rochester, N. Y. 



The United States National Museum uses 

 for its skin clothing and textiles generally, 

 a Shaw & Geary, No. 2 air-compressor 



