June 28, 1902.] 
FOREST AND SlKEAM. 
607 
ig > — 
A Mississippi Rattler. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
We have a large rattlesnake in captivity, captured 
by Tripod nearly four weeks ago, when surveying in 
the woods. The specimen is over five feet long and his 
tail is adorned with ten rattles. 
After the capture the snake was carried about in the 
woods for several hours by means of a noosed string 
around his neck, attached to a stick; and was badly 
choked, so that his tongue protruded several inches. In 
his contortions in the effort to get away, the fangs were 
forced into the snake's lower jaw, so as to produce a 
free flow of blood; but he did not appear to suffer aiiy 
harm from his self-inflicted wounds. This is a mys- 
tery, as it seems to be a well attested fact that the in- 
jeetkm of a snake's venom into his own veins is fatal 
to him. The only explanation of this case that occurs 
to me is, that perhaps from the particular position of 
the fangs with reference to the snake's mouth, no venom 
was ejected through them; or else, that the store of 
venom had become exhausted for the time. 
I happened to be at the planter's residence when 
Tripod arrived with his snake about an hour after dark. 
He was in a mule wagon, accompanied by several neg- 
roes. 
The snake, freed from the string, was under a flour 
barrel in the wagon bed. Most of the hoops had fallen 
off the barrel, so there was plenty of room for the snake 
lo crawl out between the staves. Tripod was keeping 
guard over the snake with a stick, to compel him to 
retire into the barrel when he attempted to crawl out, 
while a negro held down the barrel. In this posture 
he had traveled several miles in the dark. 
The problem now was to transfer the snake to a 
cracker box. I am not acquainted with any ordinary 
person except Tripod, who would have undertaken the 
task that he accomplished on that occasion. 
The wagon with mules attached was standing near 
the back door of the residence. Tripod, with much ado, 
was hunting up a cracker box and nailing slats on it 
for the snake's reception. The lady of the house, mean- 
while, surrounded by her troop of small children and 
several guests, was expostulating, and expressing her 
indignation in no uncertain tones about the whole pro- 
ceeding. One of the negroes was timidly _ standing- 
guard over the snake with a stick by the light of a 
lamp, while the mules were so restless that another 
negro had to stand at their heads to prevent them from 
bolting for the -stable. Now came the critical part of 
the operation — to transfer a robust rattlesnake of his 
dimensions from under a dilapidated flour barrel in a 
wagon bed, the sides of which were a foot high, into a 
cracker box, one of its slats being left loose at one 
end; the mules prancing about and jerking the wagon; 
and all by the flickering light of a lamp held by ( the 
writer. 
After some badgering of the snake, which tried to 
escape from the wagon bed, he took refuge of his own 
accord in the cracker box, and the remaining slat was 
nailed fast. He was then transferred to the "gear 
room" for the night, about 300 yards from the residence; 
but the mater familias was not reconciled by this ar- 
rangement, ' and I believe that Tripod is still persona 
non grata with her. 
The next day the snake was brought to Clarksdale 
and placed in a box with a glass top, about half the 
snake's length. He was on exhibition for a day or two 
and kept in a constant state of alarm and excitement, 
his rattle going almost continuously. Under these con- 
ditions a "frying-size" chicken was placed in the box. 
The snake lay coiled at one end of the box while the 
chicken squatted contentedly at the other end. After an 
hour or two of quietude, hearing a flopping in the box 
I approached and looked in, to see the chicken kicking 
his last kick a few seconds after being stricken. The 
chicken probably made some sudden movement that 
released the trigger of the snake's coil, with the result 
of an instant strike. 
A box was constructed 6 feet by 3, with a wire screen 
tor a top, in which the snake now enjoys commodious 
quarters on the back porch of the office. Some days 
ago, while escorting out of the office some lady visitors 
who had come to see the snake, I discovered on the 
front porch a pretty little garter snake,, some two and 
;i half feet, long, that had crawled up from the front yard. 
I captured the garter snake and put it into the box as 
a companion for the rattler. 
They appeared to get along very harmoniously to- 
gether, paying no attention to one another for several 
days, when the garter snake mysteriously disappeared; 
but whether he went down the rattler's throat is a mat- 
ter of doubt. I am inclined to think that he escaped 
from the box through a small crack left in the sliding 
door. 
For nearly a week past two chickens have occupied 
the box with the rattler. They seem quite oblivious of 
the snake's presence, walking over and standing on him 
with sublime indifference. 
The snake, on his part, scarcely notices the chickens, 
except to dodge his head oufc of the way of their feet. 
One of the chickens, flying up against the wire netting. 
Mopped down on the snake's coiled body without elicit- 
ing any manifestation of his disapproval. It is evident 
that the snake and the chickens do not regard each 
other as natural or hereditary enemies — or in the char- 
acter of conqueror and victim. 
I am puzzled to know how to induce the snake to 
take food, what kind of a repast would awaken his appe- 
tite, and under what circumstances he would be most 
likely to eat. It is evident that the beef trust gives him 
no present concern. 
A local newspaper man of waggish propensity printed 
an announcement that Tripod w r as fattening the snake 
with the purpose of giving a rattlesnake supper to some 
of his special friends. The correspondent of a metro- 
politan daily has written for information as to details, 
and particularly wishes to know how the venom of the 
snake is to be kept out of the pottage, Coahoma, 
Wild Animals of the North. 
l'Yom Richardson's "Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of 
the Northern Parts of British America." 
(Continued from page 486.) 
Wolves. 
Richardson seems to have believed that all the wolves of 
I be North were to be included under a single species, yet 
he describes a half-dozen varieties, gray, white, pied, 
dusky and black, the characters of which are much the 
same except as to color ; and a man who during seven 
years had traveled upward of twenty thousand miles in 
the northern part of this continent, should certainly have 
seen many wolves, and have had abundant opportunity to 
familiarize himself at least with their external characteris- 
tics. Modern naturalists, with a far greater amount of 
material than Richardson had, and with modern methods 
of studying the ostcological characters of the wolf, have 
reached conclusions very different from those of Richard- 
son. 
The reader of Forest and Stream is interested more in 
the habits of the wolf than in its specific characters. Let 
us see what Richardson has to say with regard to the 
wolf as he saw it in the North: 
''Wolves are found in greater or less abundance in 
different districts, but they may be said to be very com- 
mon throughout the northern regions ; their footmarks 
may be seen by the side of every stream, and a traveler 
can rarely nass a night in these wilds without hearing 
them howling around him. They are very numerous on 
the sandy plains, which, lying to the eastward of the 
Rocky Mountains, extend from the sources of the Peace 
and Saskatchewan rivers, toward the Missouri. There 
bands of them hang on the skirts of the buffalo herds, and 
prey upon the sick and straggling calves. They do not, 
under ordinary circumstances, venture to attack the full- 
grown animal, for the hunters informed me that they 
often see wolves walking through a herd of bulls without 
exciting the least alarm; and the marksmen, when they 
crawl toward a buffalo for the purpose of shooting it, 
occasionally wear a cap with two ears, in imitation of the 
bead of a wolf, knowing from experience that they will 
be suffered to approach nearer in that guise. On the 
barren grounds through which the Coppermine River 
flows, I had more than once an opportunity of seeing a 
single wolf in close pursuit of a reindeer, and I witnessed 
a chase on Point Lake when covered with ice, which ter- 
minated in a fine buck reindeer being_ overtaken by a 
large white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. An 
Indian, who Was concealed on the borders of the lake, ran 
in and cut the deer's throat with his knife, the wolf 
at once relinquishing his prey, and sneaking off. In the 
chase the poor deer urged its flight by great bounds, which 
for a time exceeded the speed of the wolf; but it stopped 
so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, that the 
latter, toiling on at a 'long gallop/ with its tongue lolling 
out of its mouth, gradually came up. After each hasty 
look, the poor deer redoubled its efforts to escape, but 
either exhausted by fatigue, or enervated by fear, it. be- 
came, just before it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep 
its feet. The wolves destroy many foxes, which they 
easily run down if they perceive them on a plain at any 
distance from their hiding places. In January, 1827, a 
wolf was seen to catch an Arctic fox within sight of 
Fort Franklin, - and although immediately pursued by 
hunters on snowshoes, it bore off its prey in its mouth 
without any apparent diminution of its speed. The buffalo 
hunters would be unable to preserve the game they kill 
from the wolves if the latter were not as fearful as they 
are rapacious. The simple precaution of tying a handker- 
chief to a branch, or of blowing up a bladder and hanging it 
so as to wave in the wind, is sufficient to keep herds of 
wolves at a distance. At times, however, they are im- 
pelled by hunger to be more venturous, and they have 
been known to steal provisions from under a man's head 
in the night, and to come into a travelers bivouac and 
carry off some of his dogs. During our residence at Cum- 
berland House in 1820, a wolf, which had been prowling 
around the fort, and was wounded by a musket ball and 
driven off, returned after it became dark, while the blood 
was still flowing from its wound, and carried off a dog 
from among fifty others, that howled piteously, but had 
not courage to unite in an attack on their enemy. I was 
told of a poor Indian woman who was strangled by a 
wolf, while her husband, who saw the attack, was hastening 
to her assistance ; but this was the only instance of their 
destroying human life that came to my knowledge. As 
the winter advances, and the snow becomes deep, the 
wolves being no longer able to hunt with success, suffer 
from hunger, and in severe seasons may die. In the spring 
of 1826 a large gray wolf was driven by hunger to prowl 
among the Indian huts which were erected in the im- 
mediate vicinity of Fort Franklin, but not being success- 
ful in picking up aught to eat, it was found a few days 
afterward lying dead on the snow near the fort. Its ex- 
treme emaciation and the emptiness of its intestines 
showed clearly that it died from inanition. The skin 
and the cranium were brought to England, and presented 
to the Museum of the Edinburgh University, and a draw- 
ing from it is to be engraved for Mr. Wilson's beautiful 
illustrations of zoology. 
"The American w r olf burrows, and brings forth its 
young in earths with several outlets, like those of a fox. 
I saw some of their burrows on the plains of the Sas- 
katchewan, and also on the banks of the Coppermine 
River. The number of young in a litter varies from 
four or five to eight or nine. _ In Captain Parry's and 
Captain Franklin's narratives, instances are recorded of 
the female wolves associating with the domestic dog, and 
we were informed that the Indians endeavor to improve 
their sledge dogs by crossing the breed with wolves. The 
resemblance between the Northern wolves and the domes- 
tic dog of the Indians is so great, that the size and 
strength of the wolf seems to be the only difference. I 
have more than once mistaken a band of wolves for the 
dogs of a party of Indians, and the howl of the animals 
of both species is prolonged so exactly in the. same key 
that even the practiced ear of an Indian fails at times to 
discriminate them. 
'"The following notices, by Captain Lyons, of the wolves 
of Melville Peninsula, are good illustrations of the 
strength and habits of the Northern wolves in general: 
'A fine dog was lost in the afternoon. It had strayed to 
the hummocks ahead without its master, and Mr. Elder, 
who was near to the spot, saw five wolves rush at, attack 
and devour it in an incredibly short space of time ; before 
he cotdd reach the place the carcass was torn in pieces, 
and he found only the lower part of one leg. The bold- 
ness of the wolves was altogether astonishing, as they 
were almost constantly seen among the hummocks, or 
lying quietly at no great distance in wait for dogs. From 
all we observed, I have no reason to suppose 'that they 
would attack a single unarmed man, both English and 
Esquimaux frequently passing them without a stick in 
their hands ; the animals, however, exhibited no symptoms 
of fear, but rather a kind of tacit agreement not to be 
the beginners of a quarrel, even though they might have 
been certain of proving victorious. * * * The wolves 
had now grown so bold as to come alongside, and on this 
night they broke into a snow hut, in which a couple of 
newly purchased Esquimaux dogs were confined, and 
carried them off, but not without some difficulty, for in the 
daylight we found even the ceiling of the hut sprinkled 
with blood and hair. When the alarm was given, and the ' 
wolves were fired at, one of them was observed carry- 
ing a dead dog in his mouth, clear of the ground, at a 
canter, notwithstanding the animal was of his own weight. 
Before morning they tore a quantity of canvas off the 
observatory and devoured it. * * * The Esquimaux 
wolf trap is made of strong slabs of ice, long and nar- 
row, so that a fox can with difficulty turn himself in it, 
but a wolf must actually remain in the position in which 
he is taken. The door is a heavy portcullis of ice, sliding 
in two well-secured grooves of the same substance, and is 
kept up by a line, which, passing over the top of the trap, 
is carried through a hole at the furthest extremity; to the 
end of the line is fastened a small hoop of whalebone, and 
to this any kind of flesh bait is attached. From the slab 
which terminates the trap, a projection of ice, or a peg 
of wood or bone, points inward near the bottom, and 
under this the hoop is lightly hooked; the slightest pull 
at the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and 
the wolf is speared where he lies.' " 
The prairie wolf, so familiar to all Western travelers, 
under the commoner name of coyote, is mentioned by 
Richardson, but at no great length, since its range hardly 
reaches into the country where he journeyed. He speaks 
of the familiarity of the animal on the plains of the 
Saskatchewan, and says that at the report of a gun these 
animals start from the earth in great numbers, and gather 
around the hunter, in expectation of getting the offal of 
the animal he has slaughtered. He speaks also of the 
great swiftness of the coyote, but says nothing of its cun- 
ning. 
It is well known that Dr. C. H. Merriam has discovered 
the greatest variation in the coyotes of Western America, 
and has described a number of species and sub-species, for 
which he has specimens to show. 
Potholes. 
Editor E or est and Stream: 
Among the peculiarities to be noticed and studied in 
many, if not all the older geological formations, is the 
rounded cavities in the rocks commonly called potholes. 
These are smooth, perfectly round, and vary from a few- 
inches to many feet in depth. Here, in_ Western North 
Carolina, we have this phenomenon existing to a very 
remarkable extent, varying from small basins a few 
inches wide or deep to others many feet deep, but all 
narrow comparatively. Some I have measured in the Cul- 
lasaga River — which flows for several miles through my 
land here in Macon County, N. C. — are as much as from 
10 to over 20 feet deep; how much deeper I don't know, 
as the bottoms are covered with small rounded gravel 
consisting of the hardest stones, chiefly garnets, of which 
in places the granite is mostly made up, so much so 
that these bright, red round pebbles cover the roads. 
Along the stream one comes across these holes, so 
called potholes, in process of formation, and a few 
inches deep. In some places these holes are a foot or 
more in diameter and large enough to hold a good- 
sized trout, which thus lives at his ease, having his food 
brought right to his home by the whirling water, in the 
form mostly of the "stick bait," so-called, and insects 
carried down by the water. It is very easy to under- 
stand the process. A stone is swept down the stream 
and lodges in a cross crevice of the rock, and is con- 
stantly moved by the current. In time a hollow is 
worn, and other stones and gravel collect in it,_ and the 
whirling always going on soon forms a basin which 
deepens as the years run on, and the process is continu- 
ous until the gravel accumulates and the bottom- is pro- 
tected — perhaps in some, but not in all — and in these the 
wearing goes on — forever, we may think. 
A student — and anyone who thinks intelligently is a 
student — thus reads a very plain chapter in the book of 
nature and soon becomes an apt scholar. My first les- 
son in this line — it may be called rock lore — was learned 
in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan a good many years 
ago in regard to what is known as the glacial action of 
very ancient times in the world's history — when by some 
vast convulsion of nature, there was an enormous quan- 
tity of ice and rock drift passing from the present north 
toward the south, the masses of ice-glaciers, in fact 
crushing under them the fragments of the broken rocks 
and wearing out grooves broad and deep into the solid 
surface and gullying out valleys and leaving short 
broken-off moraines of rounded rocks, pebbles and 
gravel. This is especially noticeable in Northern Wis- 
consin and Michigan. All these appearances carry with 
them evidences as plain and unmistakable to the duly 
informed student, as well as any other intelligent per- 
son, of bygone events, as was the imprint of^ the man's 
foot in the sand to the mind of Defoe's Robinson Cru- 
soe. They show the plainest possible proofs of events 
which occurred ages ago. and are even happening under 
our very eyes to-day, and -which afford explanations of 
things which attract our notice. Doubtless ancient peo- 
ples learned this lesson of nature as they — and we, too. 
now— have noticed what was going on. And we have 
much to learn still from those old races and may, not 
withstanding our modern skill, now find some things 
which existed in old times, very difficult to do. In fact, 
we should not be too proud of our modern accomplish- 
ments, How many of us could fashion the boomerang 
