The Arizona sentinel., 1889-10-05

the mate of the one l had killed. This
snake was coming for me and no mis-
take. l hadn't much time to think,
but what thinking L did was to the
point / threw the dead snake over
the fence and grabbed stone. When
the pursuing snake came to the body
of its dead mate it stopped and passed
slowly around it. When it offered a
favorable mark l hurled the stone at
it. Ny aim was good. The stone
landed on the snakes head and pinned
it fast to the ground. 1 jumped down
and ran my knife TO the hilt in the
snakes neck, and that ended him.
The second measured over eight feet.
81 thought that was the boss black
snake, but that same summer there
was one killed on the Black Forest
road, in Potter County. that measured
fourteen feet. No man killed it. though.
The snake actually came out of the
woods and tried to capture mule that
one of the tannery men was
driving. The man jumped out
of the wagon and ran away at
sight of the snake. He met three men,
and they went back with him. The
mule stood in the road where the man
had left him. The snake lay in pile
at one side of the road. His head was
smashed and his back was broken.
There were some big ridges on the
mule, showing that the snake had sue
ceeded in getting few coils around
him, but how the mule had managed
to kill the snake nobody knew. There
was blood on one of the mules hind
feet and blood on his bit, indicating
that he had in some way brought his
mouth to the aid of his trusty heel, and
the snake had to go. That snake was
taken to Coudersport. As soon as [
heard of it l went there post haste,
determined to secure the big black
snake, but they told me had arrived
too late, as the body had been sent to
the Smithsonian Institution. They
should have sent the mule with it, by
rights.
Zone reason why rattlesnakes get
more plentiful every year is the thin
ming out of deer from the woods. A
blacksnake, as much as he hates rat
tlesnakes, don't hate them bit more
than the deer does. Deer will hunt
snakes as persistently as a dog will
hunt birds. When deer once gets
his eye on a rattler that rattler's fate
is sealed. The deer waits until the
snake coils to strike. and then rises on
his hind feet and strikes the snake with
his sharp fore feet, killing it instantly.
After killing the snake, if there are no
more at hand requiring his attention,
the deer will cut it to pieces with his
hoofs. In the fall of the year. when
the snakes are returning to their dens,
and in the spring when they are COM
ing out, deer visit the dens and kill
rattlers by the score. In this way,
when they were pie nty they undoubt-
edly kept the rattlesnake population
down by thousands every year. Old
hunters say that even if rattlesnakes
succeed in biting deer the poison has
no effect upon them. l guess that it is
a mistake. 1 came across a big buck,
one fall, lying dead in the woods in
Clinton County. His body was greatly
swollen. / at first supposed that the
deer had been wounded by a hunter
and had escaped the dogs and died
without being discovered, but look ing
closer, l saw rattlesnake's fang in
one of his nostrils, fast in the flesh.
The deer had undoubtedly attacked
rattlesnake, and the latter had struck
him in the nose. The deer, Jerking
his head suddenly back, had torn the
fang from the snakes jaw. The deer
had died of the poison.
"a good many people don't believe
a snake can charm things, but tell
you it can, and / go so far as to say
that it don't make any difference
whether the snake is dead or alive.
When dead snake can charm goose,
I'd like to know what there is that
live one can't charm? l had flock of
six or seven geese, and they were about
the next thing to wild, for l couldn't
get within a gunshot of them. One
day was going through a lot near my
house, and l noticed one of my geese
standing with its. neck stretched out at
full length, andIts wings raised away
from its body, gazing intently at some
thing on the ground.
THE rest of the geese were feeding
some distance away. walked toward
the goose, and got close enough to
touch it. and it never noticed my pres
ence. The goose's eyes were distend-
ed, and glittered like fire. Hooked at
the spot upon which the big bird was
gazing so intently, and discovered a
spotted snake of very decided coloring.
l don't know what kind of snake it
was, for 1 never saw one like it before
or since. The goose didn't move when
1 touched it, and 1 picked it up and
carried il away three or four
yards, when for the first it seemed to
become aware of things around it, and
began to squawk and kick. l dropped
the goose, and it hurried to rejoin its
companions. l went back to where
the snake was, and was surprised to
find that it was dead, and that its head
was smashed in. l knew that live
snakes could charm, but that a dead
one had such an influence over things
was new to me. l drove one of my
turkeys to the spot where the snake