2 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
upon their trails. Whenever his neighbors’ cattle or dogs were 
bitten and they appealed to him for aid, the same was never 
refused by reason of the urgency of his own personal affairs. 
Year in and year out he ponc(e re drover their habits, and with 
the painstaking care of a general in the field, he sought to 
acquire a better knowledge of their vulnerable points. He 
knew that every beast of the field, bird of the air, and in fact 
every living thing possessed one or more inherent weaknesses. 
He would find their weakness though it took him years to do it. 
To pursue him through territory of his own choosing was 
literally making a companion of death. When the woodland 
had taken on a new coat of green, while last year’s accumula¬ 
tion of dead pine needles, fallen bits of pine bark and other 
decaying matter which usually litters the forest, his camou¬ 
flaged skin blends perfectly with this litter, and it would be 
an act of sheer foolhardiness to seek him in an environment 
he had chosen with such care on which to make his stand. 
Perhaps there was a safer way. If so, he would find it. 
People who live in sections inhabited by snakes know that they 
will not find them traveling during cold weather. In fact, you 
will never see one during the colder months of the year, unless 
he be in captivity, or be dug out of his winter quarters. True, 
he may come forth from his place of hibernation during winter 
months when the outside temperature attains sixty degrees or 
upward and remains at such point for a protracted period of 
time, but on such occasions he remains near his “dug-out,” 
refusing to wander far afield in search of food. At the first 
sign of winter they commence scurrying about in search of a 
suitable place to spend the winter. This applies to rattlers as 
well as other species common to this section. Some of the 
smaller species will select holes in the ground, such as mole 
runs and the like. Others prefer holes in hollow logs, cavities 
in the rotten wood of stumps, underneath rocks and fallen 
timber. In mountainous regions where caves in the rocks are 
common, such abiding places may house innumerable assem¬ 
blages of these revolting creatures. Where large pine trees 
have died, or been cut away by farmers, or logging men, the 
outer strata of soft sap wood soon goes to decay, thus leaving 
