Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1893-02-16
RATTLERS AND SWINE.
California Snakes That Wage War
Upon the Porkers.
An Alpine County Backwoodsman De-
scribes the Manner IA Which the Hogs
Are Pursued and Killed by
Their Venomous Foes.

among the odd things that have
been told SO much that everybody is
familiar with them" said ranchman
who came into Pomona to lay in his
supplies the other day, says the Pomona
(Cal.) Progress, sis the one that the
deadly venom of rattlesnakes has no eff
feet on hogs. Now, | don't know
whether the poison bags Of rattlesnakes
that have their habitat up in Alpine
county are filed with venom of greater
power than the poison rattlcsnakes of
other regions, or whether the hogs of
other localities have stronger constitu-
tionS than the hogs of Alpine county
have but | know what | am talking
about when | say that hogs are just n
picnic for Alpine county rattlesnakes.
Il have read many and many time
that the favoritc amusement and recrea-
ton that hogs have in other communities
where the rattlesnaie abounds is hunt
ing down and destroying these dead
ly reptiles, the hogs going in among
them with as much nonChalance as II
they were entering corn-crib, tearing
the reptiles to pieces and devouring them
all but the heads.
81 had an old San Bernardno 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-
struying rattlesnakes to that extent
that the locality was in danger of being
entirely depopulated of the reptiles,
which would have seriously affected the
income of my friend, as the rattlcsnallcs
in his bailiwicll yielded him a snug sum
annually from their oil and skins. lie
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. Rattlesnallcs hunt the hogs II
you should ever be in that garlcnapot Of
occidental climeS, and should see q hog
tearing over the plain like a cyclone, its
eyes hanging out, its tail curlcd up ike
a corll-scrcw, and its whole bearing in
dicativc OF an ovcrpowering wish to get
in out Of the wet somewhere, you need
have no apprehension. Not for yourself,
| mean. You may have some for the
hog if you want to, for not far behind
it, and surely gaining on it, you will
see rattlesnakc sliding along like
streak of CREASED lightning, his head
raised about six inches from the ground
and his glittering eyes on the flying hog.
ut will be something out Of the COM
mon If that hog gets home with its life,
for even if it is in IA fair way to escape
from the pursuing RATHER, the chances
arethat it will find itself ambuscaded
by others If you see the hog stop
suddenly in its wild fight and tack off
on another course either one way or tho
other, you may know that an accom-
plice of the pursuing snake has risen
up in front of the hog and barred cs-
cape in that direction. Then if the hog
stops suddenly again in the new course
it was forced to take, and makes n
break in another direction, you may
safely bet that third rattlcsnallc has
as much as said to the beleaguered
porller that he can come on if he likes,
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 rattlesnakcS and he will be a
dead hog in iiffy, 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.
81 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 amuse themselves by pick
ing them off at their leisure, make them
run the gauntlet of long rows of snakes
and have other fiendish fun with them.
The snakes don't eat the hogs, for even
an Alpine county rattlesnalIe 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-
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