The banner-enterprise., 1883-06-14
SURROUNDED BY SERPENTS.
TERRIBLE BATTLE OF THREE MEN
WITH A SEA OF SNAKES.
A Terrible AiI-Night Battle With Thousands
of Writhing Monsters--Sarrow Escape
from n Horrible Death.

Chr0nicl) three men who had just
passed through an ord al that is terri
bic to contemplate, and their many
wounds go to show that the story they
til is but too true and horrible in its
details. The men are L. w. Smith
and George II. White, Jr., of Pueblo,
and Thomas McGough, of Colorado
Springs. They detail the account OF
the'r adventure about as follows: Nine
miles from the mouth Of Cottonwood
Creek, up the stream, is a barren
wilderness of scrubby underground
and boulders, and rocks, and stones.
TO stand on the verdant shore of this
sea of waste land, one would natur-
ally conclude that they were not
many miles away from nowhere, and,
for aught they knew, were the first
to discover this blank sea Of waste,
barren, worthless fly-speck on the
shirt-iront of creation. The men
were on n fishing expedition, and
started Wednesday morning from the
mouth of the Minnehaha stream to
wend and wade their way toward its
source, when they rea he'd the spot
above mentioned. Here night ovei-
reached tham, and, having a lunch,
they luilt a f-e and male themselves
as comfortable as possible on the sur
face of a scraggy messed rock. Being
tired and footsore, as soon as their
scanty repast was eagerly devoured
they were soon reveling in dreams that,
perhaps, are more or less pleasant to
the mind while fitting in the realms
of such fancies. One of the party had
not been tangled with Morpheus long
until he was awakened by something
choking him, and, feeling, found his
strange collar was cold and Shiny. 1T
was a very fine specimen Of the black
snake species, which was girding his
throttle in its anything but loving
embrace. The monster was soon dis
patched, and the party were about to
jie down again after ridding them
selves of his snakeship, when they
found by the aid of the dying emberS
and the assistance afforded by
the quarter moon that they were
literally surrounded by the venom
tongued trailers. Two of the party
proposed to deaamp for more conge-
nial cine, but when about to leave the
rock they found themselves tral ping
on a living sea of serpents. The hiss
ing and rattl ng became more aud lie,
and 1t was but a few minut until 1t
was as loud as ordinary toned voices.
The men, finding they were thus sur
rounded, broke branches from the
stubby undsrgrowth of ines and con-
menced lashing the writing sea OF
darting, Kissing snakes. i aHng
that t lcy had an all-night job, thcy
added fuel to the fire, and procured the
Target sti ks obtainab'e and com
menced the killing in earnest. The
light and noise seemed to awaken the
whole barren waste into tempest of
Kissing and rafting. Ea"h began tie
slaughter with re loub.ed Y gor, vainly
endea oring to fight their way to the
stream. some hundred yards away,
down slanting hill. They would
gain few PAGES of the distance, only
to lie driven back again to the
rock. The rafting and lii.sing
became so ,old that their voices
were not audible unless close hy. The
sound was something like four or five
wheat separat rs in operation at one
TIM. 1t was terrible. The hair on
their heads was standing straight and
stiff like the wires on a patent hair
brush. Their hands and arms were
bloodStained to their elbows, and tie
stencil from the snaky BATTLEFIELD | was
sickening in theeXtreme 0nehour after
the first snake was killed no less thln
5000 lay slain, and they kept coming
thicker ard faster. Two Of the men
were bitten. and their legs and arms
began to swell AMI pain badly, and
they frequently hal to rest and permit
one to do the killing of three. The
hours wore slowly by, and the slaugh-
ter was kept up as best they could.
At last morning came and lifted the
curtain of night from a most appall-
ing scene. For fifty feet all around
the huge rocks lay heap Of stunned,
suuirming and deal snakes. AS far
as they could see all around tn
barren waste was seething tide o.
reptiles that came toward the roc&
with ma ldening fury. Concludingthat
they might as well earn death by a
dearer fate, they made ready to run
for the stream, thinking that if they
gained the other side they would have
better chance to care for their
wounds. Lcaping as far as possible
from the rock, they ran, frantic,
struggling, bitten. and, wild with
pain, they plunged into the water and
reached the other side, completely
overcome by the terrible ordeal Just
passed through, and after some time
bandaged their bleeding and swollen
limls.
BY 9 o'clock they were sufficiently
f IbINlNNTftl w ANllN1IiuN w NpNeNAa'
Springs, where they took the first train
for Leadville to secure medical aid,
arriving here last night. The unfor-
tunate men are now under the care of
DIR. d. II. Dougan. They descril ed
the snakes as being specimens of all
kinds, such a, adders, yip RS, copper
heads, milk, house, green and black,
and among them were two hoop
snakes and a racer, which they dec arc
was no less than twenty-five feet in
length. The doctor says the men are
net fatally bitten, but it will be some
time before the swelling and pain will
disappear. They leave tonight fol
their respective homes, feeling that
they have had enough fishing and ar
abundance of snakes for one excursion
The total number of coke ovens In
/ 4