The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-06-03
A SNAKE RENDEZVOUS.
A Rock That Is Perfec. Mine of serpent


| l ever struck in that part of Pennsyt-
vania. and haven't missed enjoying 1t
| every spring for ten years or more. 1t
will begin to open up before long II the
weather keeps mild. and people will be
| going from miles around to have their
sport at the snake rock.
They first discovered the capacity of
| this rock in Bills back meadow about
twenty years ago, and it has never
weakened bit in all that time. 1t is
about twelve feet long, three feet above
the ground, and full of assures. These
assures are perpendicular, and lead
down the face of the rock, apparently,
as far as it goes in the ground. How far
that is don't know. Nobody had ever
noticed that the rock had any more
points than any other rock in that local.
ity, and there are plenty of rocks there to
choose from, until one day. something
like twenty years ago, man who
was working for Van Fleet was walk
ing by it. along in April, and saw big
milk snake coming out of one of the fis-
sures. The man stood watching this
snake as it drew itself out of the crack
and wasn't a great deal surprised when
he saw another follow it from the rock.
But when right behind the second
snake. snakes of all sorts and sizes began
to issue from the fissure the hired man
picked up his feet and hurried to the
house. He told Van Fleet what the old
rock in the back meadow was doing,
and they both went back with fails,
L.. L. LII ~ h.,
rock yielded to them they got tired.
There was blacllsnakes, rattlesnalles,
milk snakes garter snakes, copper
heads. blowing adders, and | think a
few other varieties, and they We're COM
ing from the rock when Van Fleet and
his men quit thrashing the life out of
them and went home. The next day
they went up to the meadow and added
800 more dead snakes to the first lot. All
through April the rock kept shedding
snakes, and Van Fleet and his man
killed more than a thousand. How
many got away they could not tell.
The next year the rock began empty
ing snakes out into Van Fleets meadow
just as literally as it had the year be-
fore, and although the farmer spent
most of the month in killing them, the
crop was just as big the year after that,
and has never failed or been any smaller
any spring since. Of course the fame
of the snalie-bearing rock soon spread
around the country, and now people go
to Van Fleets back meadow as regu-
larly as April comes to see the snakes
come out. and to take hand in the
sport of killing them. I've been one of
them for ten Yeas. and I'll be there
this year. I've brought away from that
rock more than n bushel of rattlesnake
rattles, and if | had sold the skins in
stead of giving them away could have
made a small fortune out of them. A
queer thing about this snake rock is
that, although hundreds of people have
seen the tloclls of snakes that come out
of it every spring, no one has ever vet
seen a single snake go into the rock in
the fall or any other time. How they
get there without discovery is mystery
that no one up there has been able to
solve. You can get almost any kind of
snake you want out of that rock if you
are there in the season when it yields
its crop. | wouldn't miss it for farm.
"Then there is another interesting
thing up in that locality in Dennis
O'Sullivan's snake-egg mine, but don't
care SO much for that as do for Van
Fleets snake-bearing rock. This snake
egg mine is of recent discovery. A
| couple of years ago O'Sullivan was dig
ging out dirt on his farm where bridge
crossed a creek on his premises. He
| unearthed lot of oval round white
things resembling birds eggs. but with
| soft shell He broke one of them
open and found inside of it IA little
snake, curled up snugly. The snake
was alive. and when taken to a warm
place it uncurled itself and developed y
length of more than six inches. Then
G'Sullivan counted the collection of
| eggs he mad uncovered and found that
he had 800 of them. Every one that he
broke had a living snake in it. He
smashed couple of hundred of them
and took the rest home and put them
in box, Matched them out, and killed
the snakes as they appeared. He dug
up after that a peck of snakes eggs,
and as he destroyed them all he thought
there would dcarth of that kind of
snakes in his vicinity that year. They
were water snakes but as he was called
upon to kill $50 mature water snakes
that season near where he had uncov-
cred the egg mine he concluded that
| there must have been an important
lead in the mine that he hadn't struck.
| He was sure of it when during the same
season his two boys killed S23 of the
same kind of snakes. and even the fam
lily cat discovered and captured 9S The
next spring, in dredging and ditching
near the spot where he had found the
fat deposit of eggs, he turned up with
every shovelful of earth another collec-
ton just as large, and last spring the
same extraordinary yield appeared.
| That part of his farm became known as
the snake-egg mine. and he is expecting
the same interesting exhibit this year.
But this snake-egg mine is not half so
| interesting to me as Van Fleets snake
rock; and am due up there when that
rock opens up for business this spring"
N. y. Sun.
| Capes for summer Wear.
The pretty capes to be worn at the
seaside and in the mountains this sum
| NOR are as a rule made of French cam.