The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-05-24
California Rattlesnakes.


There are two kinds of rattlesnnkes
in California. One is the snake of the
plains, the other the snake of the
mountains. The plain snake is short,
plethoric-looks much like an animated
bologna-sausage, and is almost as
deadly. In summer they congregate
in squads about the pools of water.
Snakes love water and will travel miles
to get it. The plain snake crawls into
grass when mown for hay, and is some
times taken up with a bunch by the
fork and pitched rattling on the hay
wagon. This makes it lively for the
man on the wagon, and makes hay
making in certain parts of California
much more of sensational and much
less of poetical calling than in some
other parts of the world.
If there is an excuse for ones drink
ing anything but water it is when
caught out on these rattlesnake plains
in August and with the kind of water
there furnished. The sun bakes the
soil as hard as brickbat and quite as
dry. At intervals of ten miles you may
find pool. You may find it on the
north side of sandstone or cement
gravel cliff. There will be two inches
of water, one inch of scum and six
inches of mud, all about churned by
the feet of hundreds of cattle, and as
you make for this lukewarm mess you
will see half-dozen bologna-sausage
rattlesnakes gliding through the dead
yellow grass for the crevices in the
base of the cliff. The water itself is
| the color of coffee without milk, and
holds six different kinds of aquatic bugs
| and worms to the square inch. You
| can stock an aquarium with every
swallow. 1t is meat and drink. Dore
missed it in having never seen one OF
these pools in the summer fringed with
bologna rattlesnakes.
1t is said that the rattlesnake of the
plains lives in the same hole with the
little burrowing owl. If you walk in a
circle around one of these owls perched
on the dirt pile by his hole, his head
will seem to turn clear round while he
| watches you, as if it went on pivot,
and nine times out of ten you will fail
to see when he whizzes his neck back
| to catch you on the other tack, SO quick
is he with this motion. Whether OF
not the rattlesnake and the owl do live
together in these holes is not clear. Nc
one has thoroughly proved it. No one
can well prove it without putting an
arm down to find out, and no one would
SO disturb the privacy and sanctity oi
the rattlesnakes' or burrowing owls
hearth. Nor is it clear who makes these
holes; no one ever saw a burrowing owl
at work shoveling out the sand. Nor q
rattlesnake. My own opinion is that
the ground-squirrel or gophers make
the holes, that the owl, finding one un-
occupied, squats in it, and that the snake
takes refuge in them when pursued.
The mountain rattlesnake is much
longer than the plain snake, much bet
ter proportioned and would readily be
could see any beauty in q rattlesnake
He tapers from the waist to the tail II
accordance with the strictest canons o.
art, carries more rattles than his broth
ers of the low counties, glides in more
graceful curves, drinks purer watel
from the clear, ice-cold springs of tn,
upper Sierras, and seems in every re
spect more aesthetic distributor o
venom. With all the talk, past ant
present, of the rattlesnake's ''deadly
poison" never could hunt to its hol,
well-authenticated case of death b,
it. This is not from any lack of snak'
stories or of snake deaths, and many o
these stories have heard, but in ever,
case found the narrator told what b,
had heard and not what he had seen.
was with man on Red Mountain Ba
Who was bitten by rattlesnake, but
vas the rattlesnake that died, bein.
stoned to death. The man lived, go
drunk, got well of the bite by gettins
drunk, but sick at the stomach from tn
same cause, and before his medicine hat
ceased its operation he came near kill
ing brother man.
The generally accredited cure for tn
rattlesnake's bite is whisky-as full a
! possible. Many people in Californi
were so afraid of the bite that the,
kept full most of the time as pro
phylactic or preventive. Hence tn
remedy has killed far more than tn
snake. This makes no difference. The
still go on with their prophylactiC
Another cure for the rattlesnake bite
to bury all of the bitten man in tn
earth but his head. The earth is sup
posed to have a quality which draw
the poison from the wound. If til
man is bitten in the head he must, i
course, be buried head downward.
Where the rattlesnake goes to die, u
, what he dies of, or where he goes afte
he dies, are all mysteries. Despite a
the digging in California. no one eve
excavated rattlesnake that had dia
peacefully in its bed.
The nearer you are to country FL
of rattlesnakes the less they are talke
, about or feared. Where the rattle
snake is most dreaded is where he
not, or ever has been, or probably neve
will be. He is game snake. He wi
turn and make a fight, no matter ho'
great the odds against him. If he
cut in two he will continue the figf
! with what's left of him forward.
you chop that in two he will keep u
the battle with his fore-quarter. Yo
can't s.knock him OUT till you smas
his head; and even then the last in
provised tail will squirn. The onl
foolish thing he does is to bite at
| stick and throw SO much of his poiso
5 away on it. He seems to have no di:
elimination in the use of his poison
just like some people who bite at ever