1230 The Copperhead. [December, 
the west, an extensive swamp to the east, and bounded by the 
New York and Long Branch R. R. on the north, near the june- 
tion of the Freehold and New York R. R. This uncultivated lot 
was overgrown with many plants of Monarda, Apocynum canna- 
binum, a few Millefoliums, Asters, and much more of Cenchrus 
tribuloides, the annoying hedgehog-grass. Here and there in the 
sandy ground were a few Rubus canadensis and Cassia chame- 
crista, which made up the vegetation of the spot, not covering 
more than half an acre all told. It was gently sloping towards 
the swamp, the steep bank of which, nearly twenty-five feet high, 
was covered with bushes and a rank undergrowth of weeds and 
briars, a fit lurking place for reptiles, and more so perhaps be- 
cause on the side nearest the railroad trestle a number of springs 
poured their pure water down over the shady declivity, making it 
a resort for birds and other animals. 
Having missed an earlier train, I did not arrive on the ground 
until after 4 P. M., when the sun was fast receding in the west. I 
took a hasty stroll over the field to better understand where to 
commence work, and in so doing walked directly over of past 
the locality where I afterward met the copperhead without having 
observed anything unusual. Having had a kind of presentiment 
all the morning and ever after, that I might possibly come acros 
an Ancistrodon, which I did not have the slightest wish to dot 
could not help examining all the ground most carefully bags 
me, and so much so that it more than annoyed me during the 
short time left for work. 
While thus engaged cutting with my right han 
which I carried in the left, and while slowly movin i 
tion of the cornfield, with my back to the swamp and the pa 
the sun lighting up the ground before me, I instinctively so 
back a step on the discovery of a triangular-looking object a 
me close to the ground, the other end of which was é E 
den by intervening plants. Taking a hasty second look, x 
ticed that it was the head of a serpent with the body strete ae 
an opposite direction, and to all appearance dead i motion 
With the glare of the sun in my face and an otherwise © u 
eyesight, I could not, from where I stood, fully observe ee 
dition of the reptile’s eyes, so as to assure me vn S 
dead or alive. Taking another step or two south of where £ 
viously stood, I was enabled to take a lateral view of the op" 
d the Monat, 
g in the dee 
