South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-08-25
NUMBER 21.
About Yipers.

This reptile is not nearly 50 terrible as
is generally supposed. True it possesses
venomOus fangs, and its bite is very dan
gerOus, though not often fatal. But with
the true apathy of its reptile nature, it is
very unwilling to use its formidable wea-
pous, and will at all times rather glide
| away than bite. l have valked for days
together through heath lands that abso-
lutely swarmed with vipers of all shades
of col and all sizes. As my foot brushed
aside the tufts of heather, viper would
crawl out of them, and glide softly away
or gentle rustling would point out the
spot where another had already taken
alarm, and was escaping from the presence
of the intruder. Not once did a viper
even offer to attack me, though 1 must
often have actually touched their bodies,
and feel sure that unless l had actually
trOdden on, or in some way injured the
reptile, it would not have attempted to use
its fangs.
Only once did see viper in the atti-
tude of attack and this was under Pc
culiar circumstances. Knowing that l
took an unsccountable interest in these
reptiles, g man summoned up courage to
bring me a young living viper. OF course
paid him, and then had the modification
Of finding that the poor rep lie was quite
disabled, the man having crippled it by q
blow from his stick before he dared TO
NEEDLE with it. When it was placed on
the ground, it tried to crawl away, but
being unable to do so, erected the sound pOr-
ton Ofthe body and stood on the defensive,
striking at everything which came near it.
But this was simply acting on the defen
sive. If it could have crept away, it would
have done so; but being crippled, and un-
able to escape, it endeavOred to use its
fangs as the only mode of protection. l
have seen the common grass-snake assume
a similarly menacing attitude, and strike
as if it possessed the poison fangs of the
viper.
Few persons know how 10th poisonous
serpent is TO use its fangs, except for their
legitimate object, that of taking prey. It
will endure very large amount of rough
handling before it will strike, and rarely if
ever will do so unless provoked. The late
Mr. Waterton was so well aware of this
fact, that he was accustomed to handle the
most venomous snakes with perfect i'm
punity. He has been seen to take a num-
Der of rattlesnakes from g box, carry them
into another room, put them into a glass
case, and afterward replace them in the
box. They sprang their rattle-a truly
fearful sound-and hissed, but made no
attempt to bite their captOr. He told me
that any one could do the same, and that
if the serpent were only approached very
gently, and taken up without being tightly
grasped, it would not ev= n think of biting,
its sluggish reptile nature not being suf
ticiently reused. Acting on this principle,
when he was in the wilds of Guiana, he
trusted his bare feet in places where the
most deadly snakes in-the world abound,
and would take up, examine, and release
again serpents whose bite was Certain
death.
The same rule holds good with the
viper. One of my friends, when a boy,
caught viper, which he took for harm
less snake. He chased and caught itin his
bare hand, twisted it round his neck, and
brought it home. He then exhibited the
reptile TO his friends, laughing at their
folly at being afraid of so harmless a rep
tile, and played all kinds of pranks with
it, the viper not using its fr2Dgs until he
tied it in knot, and drew it so tight as to |
hurt the creature. Its patience then gave !
way, for which it could in no wise be /
blamed, and it bit him in the hand, teach
ing him for the future to discriminate be- |
tween viper and harmless snake.
The reader may well learn here what he |
ought to have known before. There is no |
possibility of mis- aking the two reptiles /
when the distinction is once known. The |
viper has black, zigzag pattern running
along the center of the back, looking like
4 black chain; and on the head there is a
black V, standing, we may suppose, as
he initial of Viper. The black chain
lown the back is, however, an unfailing
node of detecting the viper, even if only
/ few inches of his body be visible
CasSeTs Magazine.