Omaha daily bee., 1890-11-10
SNAKES OF ClLA BOTTOM.
Big Yarns About the Reptiles Of the
Western Country
RATTLEsNAKEs AND THEIR vtNoMOUs BITE
How Ophidians Protect Themselves
From Their Common Ene emy, the
Deer-Antidotes for Snake Bites
Exclusive OF whisky.


who has been running on the Colorado
river for twenty-five years, halls from a
region perhaps more infested with
snakes than any other in the United
States. q
He told some remarkable personal eX
periences Yesterday at the Lick.
''At Beaver Island, in the Colorado
river, 300 miles above Yuma, said he,
Il saw rattlcsnake that was bigger
than any ever saw in "a menagerie. 1t
wasn't so very long-only a little over
five feet-but it was as thick as my thigh
and had a head as big as my fist. You
will know from this that it was pretty
big.
A MARROW EXPERIENCE
II tried to kill this snake with long
but rather weak stick, and standing SO
far off as had to to keep out of danger,
/ could not do effective work.
'At length the big rattler got so mad
that he bit himself, "a thing they always
do when enraged and cannot reach their
enemy, and he buried his fangs into his
tail about eight inches from the end
There he was, completely bowed up, and
solid as though welded fast.
81 got him on my pole and whirled .
him round and round like hoop,as hard
as ] could until he whizzed like wheel,
but he wouldn't let go. When | finally
tapped him down and killed him found
his terrible fangs were each two and
one-half inches long.
His poison sack at the roots was as
big as a tobacco pouch and full of blue
matter. He must have weighed thirty
pounds | never saw anywhere rattle
snake to compare with him. He was
very vicious, but | managed to down
him.
''DoCToR, DON'T LET ME DIE"
SIN my journeys along the Colorado
many strange and pathetic experiences
have come under my observation. In
Gilla City a short time ago the little son
of the section boss on the railroad went
out to the chicken house. 1t was not
in the evening, but late in the afternoon.
ut was little dark when he entered,
and he did not see a rattlesnake there
and stepped on it. 1t whirled and bit
him on the ankle His mother killed it,
and the boy was put aboard the train
and taken to Yuma, eighteen miles
away.
''There DR.. Sibley waited on him, but
he died before the next morning. The
poor little fellow did not have convul-
sions. He was conscious all the time
He would say to the doctor, Don't let
me die, doctor!' 1t was pitiful to see
MIN. His legs were swollen up bigger
than his body, and he was swollen all
over.
TWO CURIOUS REMEDIES.
'There is a weed on the desert that is
an antidote for the poison, but they
didn't seem to be able to get any at the
time. 1t is called the snakeweed, though
in fact it is little trailing vine. 1t has
the tiniest little leaf, and when it is
broken exudes milky fluid. This milk
the Indians use to make tea of and take
internally.
The Indians also have another curious
remedy. When any one is bitten they
take switches and switch one of the nu-
merous ant-hills down there. This
makes the ants very mad and they spew
out in their anger venom or saliva.
This the Indians gather up with the
dead ants and dirt by handfuls, and put
two or three of them in II rag and bind
on the bitten part, and the poultice
works a perfect cure.
''Rattlesnakes will always bite them
selves when lashed into a fury and un-
able to reach their enemy, and they
will then rush off and eat this weed
told you about. That's why it is called
snakeweed, and it is how people found
out it was cure. 1t never fails either
Wllh pcOplC VI tilttt uIS Dlubtu.
ALONELY RIDERS THRILLING ESCAPE
"No.place in the world has so many
rattlesnakes as the Gilla bottom. Now
I'll tell you this, which came under my
own observation.
Sergeant McCracken, of Colonel
Lovell's staff, at Fort Yuma, was the
mail rider from Yuma to La Paz, along
the ella valley. He was returning home
one evening on u big government mule
and when mile from Rhodes ranch he
heard an awful rattling on both sides of
the road.
''There was such rafting that it
sounded like a lot of beans in a gourd
The mule took fright and Mr.. Nc
Cracken couldn't hold him. All he could
do the mule would go and he went like
prairie fire.
IT WAS A SNAKE
'Something slowed around and struck
the mail rider, and he thoughtt was his
RATA which had become loose. He made
agrab for it and grasped in his hand a
big rattlesnake.
He was Mortified and let go, very
luckily for bim, too, and the snake,
which had become loose from the mule s
breast when he struck him, dropped
down.
1.-THE mule went the mile on n dead
run. Nothing could check him. He
ran into Rhodes corral and dropped
down.
''In fifteen minutes he was dead and
swelled up MS big as five mules. Rhodes
told me he never believed such tre-
mendous bulk could be got into one
mules hide.
"Yes, believe it is true that a rattle.
snake won't bite anything unless it is
attacked first. l believe that mule
stepped on him, probably on his tail
'But you said this was u big mule,
and how could the snake reach up and
strike him in the breast?" asked the re-
porter.
A FORMIDABLE ENEMY.
"We have snake along the Colorado
river that we call the king snake. 1t is
the enemy OF the rattlesnake, and kills
1t by crushing it like the boa constructor,
The king snake when grown is rs much
as six or seven feet long, with beautiful
red and white and black spots.
Zone would think it impossible that
one kind OF snake would kill another by
wrapping itself around its victim. The
wonder is, what is the rattlesnake doing
all this time, and is it not as quick as
the otherp 1t does not appear so. Quick
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