THE SNAKE. 
207 
their boles, and stepped from branch to branch, 
every now and then getting an imperfect sight of the 
snake. Sometimes I headed him, and sometimes I 
was behind him, as he rose and sank, and lurked in 
the muddy water. During all this time, he never 
once attempted to spring at me, because I took care 
to manoeuvre in a way not to alarm him. At last, 
having observed a favourable opportunity, I made a 
thrust at him with the lance ; but I did it in a bun- 
gling manner, for I only gave him a slight wound. I 
had no sooner done this, than he instantly sprang at 
my left buttock, seized the Russia sheeting trousers 
with his teeth, and coiled his tail round my right 
arm. All this was the work of a moment. Thus 
accoutred, I made my way out of the swamp, while 
the serpent kept his hold of my arm and trousers 
with the tenacity of a bulldog. 
As many travellers are now going up and down 
the world in quest of zoological adventures, I could 
wish to persuade them that they run no manner of 
risk in being seized ferociously by an American 
racer snake, provided they be not the aggressors : 
neither need they fear of being called to an account 
for intruding upon the amours of the rattlesnake 
(see Jamesons Journal for June, 1827), which 
amours, by the way, are never consummated in the 
manner there described. The racer's exploits must 
evidently have been invented long ago, by some 
anxious old grandmother, in the back woods of the 
United States, to deter her grandchildren from stray- 
ing into the wilds. The account of the rattlesnake's 
amours is an idle fabrication as old as the hills. When 
