58 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
left out in the open in a box with a watertight bottom. During 
the night there came a downpour of rain followed by intense 
cold. In the morning they were found coiled peacefully be¬ 
neath six inches of water, completely imprisoned by an inch of 
ice on the surface of the water. Placed in a warm spot the ice 
soon melted and they crawled forth to sun themselves. 
Whether or not he is so classified by zoologists, he would ap¬ 
pear to answer the description of a true amphibian. They have 
been found fifteen or twenty miles out on the high seas and 
getting along very nicely. 
In many parts of the West the small black rattler, when the 
cold of approaching winter causes them to abandon their 
hunting and seek a place of hibernation, may locate a spacious 
cave in the rocks. They come for miles around and thousands 
of them share the comforts of a common rendezvous. The 
ground near such place of hibernation may be literally covered 
with them. Conditions along the coastal plains of Georgia are 
decidedly different. On rare occasions two may form a dual¬ 
occupancy arrangement, and three have been found in one hole. 
Then a dozen may be found in a single square mile of terri¬ 
tory. But, generally speaking, they must be hunted down one 
at a time, and it is indeed a game of hide-and-seek. Sometimes 
Uncle Dave will hunt all day long without so much as finding 
the trail of one. On other occasions, when all factors happily 
combine to favor him, he may bag a dozen large ones. On such 
occasions, when friends inquire of his luck, he replies, “They 
bit well today.”* With the above well fixed in mind, the reader 
will gain a comprehensive idea of the difficulty of tracking 
down the diamond-back as well as the labor and time which 
must have been expended tracking down three hundred or more 
of these killers. This old gentleman possesses no land of his 
own, yet he has rendered to others a service which could not 
be compensated for in dollars and cents. About the only com¬ 
pensation he has received for his labors thus far is the trifling 
sums paid him by operators of snake farms. He does not, 
however, pause to lament this fact, but continues the prosecu¬ 
tion of his private war, notwithstanding his seventy-five years, 
semi-deafness, and seriously impaired vision. He has trained 
*See photographs, page 132. 
