Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-04-19
Tapped a Den of Snakes.

south of that city, went to the extreme
end of Henry's house lot early yester-
day morning to clean an old well there,
and after ten minutes work in the we'll
trapped the most extraordinary subter-
ranean snake reservoir noted in the an
nails of eastern Connecticut. The well
was deep. dry one, and for years Dol
beare and his family and other people
had flung all sorts of rubbish into it.
There were stones and rails, and sticks,
old boots, hoopskirts, and tin pans in
it, but nobody suspected that away
down in the bowels of it was seething
colony of serpents. With their coats
off. crowbar in hand, the two men step
ped into the rubbish heap, which reach
ed almost to the mouth of the shaft,
and with vigorous thrusts loosened the
pieces of debris and tipped them out on
the ground. After ten minutes they
were almost at the bottom of the well,
twenty feet below the surface of the
house lot. Then they removed cou
pie of broad boards. and Of sudden
the bottom of the well rose up, heaving
and billowing beneath their feet.
The phenomenon had come so sue,
denly and mysteriously that their eyes
bulged with awe and terror, and they
hoped about with trembling legs on
their serpentinc perch. They saw at
once that they had struck sort ola
solid stratum of we'll snakes, deep, con-
voluted, and inbraided, q great round
ball, as big as school globe, of hiber-
mating reptiles. Worse still, the sphere
of slim snake strands, which had been
wound into hard mass, like a ball of
wrapping twine in criss-cross fashion
during the winter, had instantly burst
into multitudinous and nimble con-
sciousness and activity under the tread
of the farmers cowhide boots; then it
began to unravel itself, and scores of
serpent tails and red forked jaws de-
tached themselves from the mass and
shot upward, twining themselves about
the mems legs and slapping them vi
ciously. In moment the whole ball
was dissolved into its component parts,
which first Strengthened themselves,
forming palpitating and heaving bat
ter of serpents two feet thick or more,
ard then the wrathful reptiles, Kissing
and coiling themselves into swift loops,
turned upon the fearful intruders in
their den.
Those scared persons, now fairly wal
lowing in snakes, had been stepping
lively in order to maintain their unsta-
bic footing, and the instant the SER
pcnts attacked them they were seized
with a panic of fright and loathing and
made break to get out of the well;
but their feet slipped on the undulat-
ing well bottom, and losing their hold
on their ladder, which had been set up
against the side of the shaft, and which
both essayed to climb at the same time,
they fell back iuto the pit and resumed
the business Of treading serpents again
at the same old stand. Then spasm
of desperate courage took possession of
them, and with their short iron pinch
bars they sailed into the attacking
army of vipers with a vegeance, re-
gardless Of style and form. The COM
bat was brief and decisive as it was eX-
traordinary.
For eight minutes the old we'll SEEM
ed to be full of flying snarkes, arms
and legs, and gesticulating pinch bars,
and the whole underground business
went on amid steady rhythmic pur-
ring or swishing uproar, and an ac-
compartment of intermittent but reg
ular dull thuds. The well buzzed like
a hive of swarming bees. The
farmers were spry and muscu-
lar, however, and they finally got the
best of the battle. Then they fought
more leisurely. The enemy had weak
ened. The attacking column of ser
pents, the first onset of which was like
the roar of mad river advancing from
subterranean regions, had dribbled
away to mere rivulet of reptiles, and
the men as speedily disposed of the
rivulet.
The well was now knee keep in dead
snakes. Not serpent got away. Then
the farmers, who were tired out with
their cXertions and bathed with perspi-
ration, took n short rest, after which
they climbed out Of the shaft. At Mr..
Dolbeare's home they procured
couple of stable forks and basket,
then returned to the well, and drew all
the dead serpents out of it. There were
Just IA of them, and the men placed
them in a row in the tunnel at the
mouth of the pit. All of them were
full grown black snakes, except three
venomous, tlat-headcd adders, and
the blacks averaged five feet in
length. Some of the largest ones
were seven feet long and as
thick as n mans forearm. 1t was
the most remarkable single private eX-
hibit of snakes, probably, in the record
of the State. So Mr.. Dolbeare kept
them in line at the well until most Of
the farmers in Montville came and saw
them. Some farmers drove eight miles
TO see the show. One of the biggest
blacks Mr.. Dolbeare brought to the
city to-day and displayed it in the
Office of the Norwich Ecening Record,
saying:
Nov, this amt no fish story I'm
giving you, and, if any one still doubts
my word, I'll engage to take him in
my team and show him the well and
the hull snake collection"
The sides of the well, said Mr.. Dol
beare, in the neighborhood of the
snake nest, were perforated with deep,
round tunnels the serpents had bored,
and into which they might retreat if
attacked and did not feel like fighting
in winter, say, when serpents in
Connecticut are in comatose state.
Mr.. Dolbeare resumed work in the