Uncle Dave. 
It is the sincere hope of the author that this volume may 
fall into the hands of some who may be entitled to lay claim 
to expert knowledge of the rattler, and that they may become 
sufficiently interested to institute an investigation of their own 
concerning the claims of these laymen. If, however, any scien¬ 
tific society should assign one of their own members to this 
field, at an estimated salary of $10,000.00 per annum for a 
period totaling 6,000 years, it would cost, as the reader can 
readily see, $ 60 , 000 , 000.00 to prove, or disprove, what the 
layman has related herein. The guess of the writer is that it 
will never be done, but rather that the college-trained herpetol¬ 
ogist will continue to bolster up his theories, that the layman 
will continue to stand by his actual observations, and that the 
public mind will remain, as heretofore, in a state of hopeless 
confusion. 
Now we are by no means unmindful of the fact that the 
scientist may ask, and with no little show of indignation, “Just 
who are you to seek a quarrel with us?” Such is not the pur¬ 
pose of the author, but on the other hand if anyone cares to 
dispute the facts stated in this volume, then we have a perfect 
right to inquire of such person just where they acquired their 
knowledge. How many years they have spent in daily contact 
with him, baring their shanks to the rattler’s deadly fangs, 
working, fishing, and hunting in the latter’s favorite grounds, 
and in general loitering about his places of hibernation. These 
old woodsmen, to whom the writer is indebted for so much, 
have been trained in the hard school of necessity—to see things 
in their true perspective—because it would sometimes be ex¬ 
tremely dangerous to misinterpret the meaning of their obser¬ 
vation, particularly where the rattler is concerned. What they 
say cannot be lightly brushed aside by contending that they 
were mistaken in what they thought they saw. 
It is a general feeling among those familiar with the rattler 
that one bitten by him has an immediate rendezvous with 
death. Such happening is contemplated with intense horror, 
notwithstanding the fact that science has developed a remedy 
for the bite which is, in most instances, effective, provided it 
(xi) 
