“STINGETH LIKE AN ADDER” 
79 
“A ten year old daughter of Fred 
Andrews, a farmer residing in the Gore 
district of Warner, was bitten by an 
adder while picking strawberries in a 
field near her home a few days ago, 
and is in a serious condition as the re- 
sult. Beginning with a violent swelling 
of the injured limb, her whole body is 
now swollen and she has been attacked 
with frequent spasms. Book scientists 
claim that the adder, a checkered snake 
common in the fields of our state, is 
not poisonous, but this is the second 
case in that vicinity where the bite of 
this variety of snake has been followed 
by serious results. 
“A farmer in the town of Newbury 
was bitten in the foot by an adder a few 
years ago and showed signs of poison 
similar to those exhibited by the An- 
drews girl. Physicians saved him at 
the time, but he remained in poor 
health for a year or two and died.” 
The story would not have been worth 
following up if it had not been almost a 
local affair and if the reporter had not 
referred to me as one of the “book 
scientists.” (I was grateful for the 
“scientist” part of the fling.) A few 
weeks before I had nearly sent him out 
of the editorial window by taking in a 
live water snake. I got statements 
from the father and from the physician 
who attended the girl. I found that 
she did not know what bit or stung her. 
There was a mottled or spotted ap- 
pearance of the skin and the father 
concluded that she must have been bit- 
ten by a spotted adder. The conclusions 
were evidently owing to stories of the 
terrible effects of snake bites told by 
those who were old enough to know 
better. At the time of my investigation 
the young woman had recovered from 
all but the fright. 
I had previously known of the sec- 
ond case mentioned and that the snake 
bite had nothing to do with the man’s 
death. 
Thus superstition and ignorance, 
along with their resultant fears, are 
passed on from generation to genera- 
tion, slowly but surely counteracted by 
such influences as those of The Agas- 
siz Association. 
The best collection of Maine minerals 
in the world is that of the Boston So- 
cietv of Natural Historv. 
White-footed Mice Resemble Squirrels. 
In Dr. Robert T. Morris’s interesting 
book, “Nut Growing,” he makes the 
following comment upon the white- 
footed mouse : 
“The white-footed mouse is nearly 
as destructive as the squirrel, particu- 
larly in relation to thin-shelled nuts. I 
had a large number of hybrid acorns 
and chestnuts covered with paper bags 
in one year when the ripening season 
approached and imagined these nuts to 
be all safe, but later discovered a very 
small hole in each bag close to a limb. 
In the bag a handful of shells showed 
where the white-footed mouse had 
eaten the nuts at his leisure, safe from 
his enemies, the owls. White-footed 
mice climb trees nearly as well as 
squirrels do — a fact which is not gen- 
erally known because of the nocturnal 
habits of this species.” 
From observations made in the Rest 
Cottage of Little Japan we can add that 
the white-footed mouse manifests al- 
most no characteristics of a mouse for 
it does not have even the mouse smell 
and is almost wholly squirrel-like in 
methods. In the construction of the 
Rest Cottage a hole was left at the base 
of the chimney where it could not well 
be discovered until a facing board had 
been removed. This gave free access 
to the white-footed mice and they 
brought in acorns, stored them away 
and ate them after the manner of squir- 
rels. They also helped themselves to 
the cotton lining of some of our com- 
fortables, making literally comfortable 
nests for themselves. For over a year 
their raids on the building defied all at- 
tempts to keep them out because the 
place of access was not even suspected. 
There were however some compensa- 
tons to the annoyance and the damage 
in the interesting observations that 
were made of the method in which 
acorns were stored between the folds of 
comfortables and in the cotton made 
nests in various places. Perhaps the 
most interesting and, as the children 
would say, “the cutest” of all was the 
filling of shoes and slippers with acorns, 
especially a pair of baby’s slippers left 
in a bureau drawer. 
The banners of the sunset 
Are swift unfurled on high, 
A setting for the silver moon, 
Suspended in the sky. 
— Emma Peirce. 
