RATTLESNAKES. . J63 
been overflowed with water, and in the interior 
parts of some of the largest of them, there are 
extensive ponds and marshes. The fine timber, 
which these islands produce, indicates that the 
soil must be uncommonly fertile. Here are 
found in great numbers, amongst the woods, 
racoons and squirrels; bears are also at times 
found upon some of the islands during the win¬ 
ter season, vrhen the lake is frozen between 
the main land and the inlands ; but they do not 
remain continually, as the other animals do. 
All the islands are dreadfully infested with ser¬ 
pents, and on some of them, rattlesnakes are so 
numerous, that in the height of summer it is 
really dangerous to land: it was now late in 
September; yet we had not been three minutes 
on shore on Bass Island, before several of these 
noxious reptiles were seen amongst the bushes, 
and a couple of them, of a large size, were 
killed by the seamen. 
Two kinds of rattlesnakes are found in this 
part of the country; the one is of a deep brown 
colour, clouded with yellow, and is seldom 
met with more than thirty inches in length. 
It usually frequents marshes and low meadows, 
where it does great mischief amongst cattle, 
which it bites mostly in the lips as they are 
grazing. The other sort is of a greenish yellow 
colour, clouded with brown, and attains nearly 
twice the size of the other. It is most com- 
M % 
