Arizona weekly republican., 1893-02-23
RATTLERS AND SWINE.
California Snakes That Wage War
 Upon the Porkers.
An Alpine County Backwoodsman De- scribes the Manner Ip Which the Hogs Are Pursued and Killed by
 Their yeuomous Foes.

Among the odd things that have been told so much that every ybody is familiar with them," said ranchman who came into Pomona to lay in his supplies the other day, says the Pomona (Cal,) Progress, lis the one that the deadly venom of rattlesnalies has no eff feet on hogs. Now, l don't know whether the poison bags of rattlesnalles that have their habitat up in Alpine county are filled with venom of greater power than the poison rattlesnakes of other regions, or whether the hogs of other localities have stronger constitu- tions than the hogs of Alpine county have, but know what l am talking about when say that hogs are just a picnic for Alpine county rattlcsnales.
 ''I have read many and many time that the favCrite amusement and recrea- ton that hogs have inothcr communities where the rattlesnake abounds is hunt ing down and destroying these dead ly reptiles, the hogs going in among them with as much nonchalance as if they were entering corn-crib, tearing the reptiles to pieces and devouring them all but the heads.
 'I had an old San Bernardino back woods friend once, who often told me, with tears in his eyes, how he had to kill valuable brood sow of his because of her persistence in hunting and de- stroying rattlcsnakcs to that extent that the locality was in danger of being entirely dcpopulated of the reptiles, which would have seriously affected the income of my friend, as the rattlesnakes in his baiiwicl yielded him a snug sum annually from their oil and skins. He tried to educate the SOW to fetch the snakes home that she killed and deliver them over to him, but she wouldn't have it that way, and so he had to kill her to prevent a snake famine.
 But it is different in Alpine county. The hogs up there don't hunt rattle snakes. RattlcsualScs hunt the hogs. If you should ever be in that garden spot of occidental climcs. and should sc" hog tearing over the plain like d cyclone. it's eyes hanging out, it's tail curlcd up like a corli-scrcw, and it's whole bearing in-
 
 in out of the wet somewhere, you need have no apprehension. Not for yourself, l mean. Iou may have some for the hog if you want to, for not far behind it, and surely gaining on it, you will see a rattlesnalSc sliding along like a streak of greGscd lightning, his head raised about six inches from the ground and his glittering eyes on the flying hog.
 Tt will be something out of the com mon if that hog gets home with its life, for even if it is in fair way to escape from the pursuing rattler, the chances are that it will find itself ambuscaded by others. If you see the hog stop suddenly in it's wild flight and tack off on another course either one way or the other. you may know thot o0 a""om- plice of the pursuing snake has risen up in front of the hog and barred es- cape in that direction. Then if the hog stops suddenly again in the new course it was forced to take, and makes a break in another direction, you may safely bet that third rattlesnake has as much as said to the bcleaguered pOTktT llluI ilt Cdll GOliiO Oi IT iiN iiiASo' but he may not like it. And so, if you see the hog try every point of the com pass, and stop short at every one, at the last stand still and snort and squeal and tremblc, you may make up your mind that escape has been cut off on every side by rattlesnalSes and he will be a dead hog in jiffy, for he will have the fangs of one of the snakes in his jug ular before you can count ten, and he lies down, swells up like toadfish and passes away.
 ''I have heard of band of these hog hating rattlesnakes of Alpine county rounding up whole droves of hogs and driving them up to the hills and impris- oning them in the rocks, where the rep tiles would amusc themselves by pick ing them off at their leisure, make them run the gauntlet of long rows of snakes and have other tendish fun with them. The snakes don't eat the hogs, for even an Alpine county rattlesnake has not capacity enough to gulp down anything larger than a rabbit. They simply seem to have an uncomfortable and deadly hatred for swine, and kill them just be- cause they hate them"