The Press., 1886-07-29
Issuei Every Thursday Evening.
,(HArtford Times.l s... THE RATTLESNAKE.

cinatiOn of its own. At this time of the year, when so many persons are brought closer to natural scenes and surroundings, it forces itself, in some localities, upon their thoughts, whether they will CT no. Philosophers have contended that the al- most universal horror felt for serpents is not a natural, inborn sentiment, but re- suit of education. They point to the fact that very young children feel none of this repugnance, but are apt to be rather pleased at the sight of snake, and to show tendency to cultivate Q closer ac quaintance with the curious, gracefully moving creature. And for some occult reason, to be searched for in the mysteries of animal psychology, most serpents do seem 10 be not unfriendly towards little toddling children; even the rattlesnake has been known to be harmless to such in- fants, under circumstances in which he could easily inhict fatal injury. But such forbearance must not be expected. As a general thing, no doubt he would in- flict his deadly bite as readily on the inno- cent child as on the adult person who comes to the rescue, and whom he instinct lively recognizes at sight as his mortal foe. Just why Nature has made such hateful and fearful creatures is not clear. The venomous snake serves but dubiously good purpose in the general rystem of Ma lures checks and balances, in keeping down somewhat the plague of other and less noxious vermin which constitute it's food an office which it would seem might be performed quite as efficiently by the harmless snakes, without the competition of their dangerous cousins.
 ; Of these, the rattlesnake is unquestiorl- ably the most dangeToussof all the snakes in the United States, as he is also, in some localities, probably the largest. Such are some of the monsters in the most southern states, where the creatures sometimes at tain, as in Florida, length of fully seven feet, and thickness and weight really enormous, even in proportion to. their length. The writer has seen specimens which measured six and 8 half feet, and having girth, in the thickest part, even more remarkable. One was killed in a ''saW palmetto" field just back of Palatka which was found to contain O full-grown rabbit This case was related by an officer of the agricultural bureau at Washington, whose home was at Palatka. Here in Con- necticut one was killed in the act of cross ing the dusty Albany turnpike at the old toll gate, west of Hartford, by MT. Phelps, who lived in the old tavern homestead, aided by some of the men who were re- pairing the road, which measured, even after cutting of the ugly head, and with 1t part of the neck, fully six feet in length -as its monstrous carcass proved, by measurement, when hung up on exhibi- tion in the Times office. That was twenty five or six years ago; and it looked as if the old rattler, finding, in the long August drought, no water up in the rocky region where he lived, about "the Pinnacle, had come down two or three miles to try the watering trough, east of the gate, towards which he was directly moving when his career was suddenly terminated. Gen. erally speaking, Connecticut rattlesnakes are not over three to four feet long. But they are more active, and hence more dan- geroua, than their bigger, more sluggish relatives in, Florida. t -z4i4 gg..' ... l.
 The range of this distinctively American serpent is "a wide one. He is found, in one form or another, all the way from the southern line of the White Mountains of I New Hampshire, and the southern front of
 the Adirondacks, to the most southern
 parts of Florida and Texas, and through
 out & great part of Mexico and all the Plains to the Rocky Mountains, and par
 ticulaFly in Arizona, and even In California.
 On the western Plains he is more apt to be l small species, but active, numerous, and T
 abundant around beautiful IAAe George,
 and to excursionists and otheks 4heyi con-
 stitute the greatest sourcsi of danger in
 several of the wilder parts of Pennsylvania. Here in Connections they are still mel
 with occasionally on the Talcott noun. tains, ten miles west of Hartford, and ID several other parts of the state They
 prefer the dry stony hill regions, and are I found in the eastern part of Glastonbury in Marlboro, and iu many localities south of those points, as in Chatham and Easl Il Haddsm. Formerly they were uncomfort ably plenty in Bolton but the energetic | steps there taken for their extermination are believed to have pretty nearly or quite ended them there. Still, one may be ex
 cused, even now, for feeling little ner
 vous uneasiness, in sitting in the cool sum mer shade of some of those lodges, or il
 ''huckleberryin9" in some of those stony
 pastures. There may very possibly bt rattiesnakes about such places.
 l They are still found in the hills of Eas Glastonbury, Marlboro, and all that re zion, including very decidedly Chatham, { little to the so1th-where one's enioymen of picturesque gorges and other scenery il ] tempered by 'a certain sense of uneasinesl in regard to snakes. In Westford, whicl is in the west part of Ashford, they ar, ] found; and in half dozen other locah ties. They are seldom or ever seen in tn, Connecticut valley proper.
 d Their rough scaly skin, brown, with dark CT spots and markings, is familiar to al } who have hunted them. One kind ha , these markings of diamond shape Lik' very nearly all of the venomous snakes they are also marked by a vicious-lookinl spear-shaped head. This contains, wher' , it's arrowhead corners most project, th 3 hidden poison gland, one on each side { which secretes the deadly fuid that man. people erfoneously suppose, to reside il , the two fangs, Just what this venom reall' { is, science has not yet fully shown but 5 is found to be an acid. Its deadly effec 2 z in tho blood is swift, and generally OCT
 tain, Science has not yet discovered an;
 available means of curing . rattlesnake'
 bite. In the southern and western state
 whisky, swallowed immediately, and il great quantities, seems to, be She main re liance. But, while if does seem to sho' , the working of one poison in the system counteract another, and while, moreover
 in exceptional cases so treated, the yictir
 Idoes sometimes recover (though he neve ] again e tAoroughly sound), it is only afte prolonged struggle, much suffering, gres
 inflammation and discoloration, and chroE
 ic i'll effects afterwards.
 . | l.