Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-07


The following marvellous snake story is from
an Ohio paper, which guarantees the truth o
every word and gives the names of number o
distinguished public men of the state as add
tional vouchers. 1t appears that certain Mr.
Cummins owns a gypsum query near For
Dodge, and employs force of some twenty-five
men in the stone. He has worked it only /
year or two, but ever since he opened, every
spring and fall his men have suffered serious
Inconvenience and annot ance from the myriads
of snakes that have den in the creyice, and
swarm in during the fall and out in the spring.
The quarry has northern exposure, the kind
that is always chosen by snakes as a den, fol
the reason that il is not affected by premature
thawing and freezing Of an early spring, as q
southern slope would he. As sOOn as the wealth
er gets settled in the spring, and the effects Of
the April sun is felt, the Serpents begin to show
themselves and the battle begins. From ont
the creviceS and the hooks of the rocks the rep
tiles swarm, crawling up the slope OF the bluff,
baSkng in the sun, or Fastening away over the
prairie to their summer haunts. Now comes
the tug of war. The foreman OF the quarry is
compelled to detail two men 10 fight the hide
Gus things, that the men may work, and one is
kept carrying away the dead in Il wheelbarrow
and buryng them, so that the numberlesS ics-
tering bodies will not breed disease. And from
all the surrounding country the snake hunters
throng to enjoy the sport of killing snakes, and
among them they go slashng and striking I'M
ill the poisonous odor cOmpels them TO beat Il
retreat. Twenty five snakes in fifteen minutes
is n common haul
The cditorof the paper in question, in compa =
ny with a number of other gentlemen, recently
paid visit to the quarry. The sun was just
warming up the northern slope when the party
arrived and this is description of what followed ::
"From the creviceS the snakes were crawling
in all directions, and 'swash, swash, went the
huge clubs of the two men who were defending
l. 81.
death of a snake. just mt our feet crawed n
deadly mOccasin, while TO the right and left
spotted addcrS and chaSerS Squrmed and Kissed
as,thev twined among the stones or Kissed up the
bluff. Directly in front of us lay pile of dead
Serpenis as large as two-buShel basket, while
on the face of the sloping bluff were probably
three hundred reptiles who had escaped the
clubs of the men, and were Fastening away to
the prairie, their elevated heads and writing
bodies transforming the bluff into one mythical
GorgOn head. just above us, on Il ledge of
rocks, was Il huge adder, and Mr.. CumminS,
picking up piece of rock, heayed it upon him,
pinning him to the ledge, but the snake was
game; some three feet of his body was free, and
gathering himself up would leap full at us with
all his force, Kissing and opening his jaws in
way that made the blood run cold, and the next
leap he made blow from our cane sent his
head spinning a score Of feet, and the bleeding
frank dropped to the earth below"
The snakes are sad 10 TetlIe INTO their den
about two p. NJ. every day, after which all is
quiet until the suns rays again reach the quarry,
when the same thing is repeated. Two hundred
and seventy-6ye snakes were killed that day, the
number for two weeks footing up $500, while it
is supposed that ten times that number escaped.
On the 14th of October the snakes commence TO
return and enter their dens for the winter, when
the same slaughter is repeated. The ledge of
the quarry is twenty-five feet in height and
nearly perpendicular, and down that distance
they crawl, roll and tumble, catching on a crag,
and, with twist of the tail, they disappear in
the dark crevces for their long sleep.
Last fall the 14th day of October came unnO-
ticed by the men; they were busy with their toll
in the rock below. The foreman was half stoop-
ing, drilling a rock preparatory for a blast,
when suddenly across his neck dropped mon
Struus spotted adder, hanging and Kissing, half
his length on either side. On looking up they
saw fifty or more snakes pouring over the edge
of the cliff. and crawling down the ledge. Then
it occurred 10 them that the 18th of October had
come, and for the next two weeks swarms of
snakes kept pouring in. This quarry, with its
den of snakes, is worthy of the attention OF the
curious and scientific. Ii has doubtless for
centuries been a resort of serpents, for at the
bottom of the ledge Of gypsum, where it joins
on the iron ore are found the petrided bodies of
snakes.