The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-09-19
A SNAKE STORY
WELL WORTH THE READING BY
ANY AND EVERY ONE.
A YARN THAT HAS SELDOM
BEBN EQUALED.
Battle Between Hogs and Sauger-How
Began on Land and Ended in the
Bloody Waters of the
Creek.
Special Correspondence of the New
York Herald.

special Correspondence of the New
York Herald.
Munith, Mich, August q, 1S95.-On
the northern edge of the great 'fPortage
marshes" which lie to the south and
east of this pretty little village, and
which include in their area many thous-
ands OF acres of marsh land, as we'll as
several lakes and streams, are still to
be found few remaining hogs of sim
gularly odd characteristics, known ia
mliiliarly to, the people whereabouts as
the snake hunters"
Twenty-Five or thirty years ago they
existed in much greater numbers than
at present, but the gradual disappear
ance of snakes from the marsh, and the
tendency among the farmers to raise
only the better grades of hogs, have re-
suited in steady diminution of their
numbers.
1t is said that people are but the crea-
lures OF the environments, and to this
cause is doubtless to be attributed those
characteristics which have given these
hogs the singular distinction which they
enjoy. AS is well known, all hogs bear
violent antipathy toward snakes, and,
after having killed them, which they
will nearly always do, they very gen
orally devour them.
In early days food of the regulation
hog kind was quite scarce about the
Portage marshes, and as the hogs,
whenever on the marsh, were continual
ly encountering and killing snakes, and
also devouring them, they came grad
ually to entertain a pronounced liking
for their flesh. The result was that
after a time they began to hunt after
snakes, just as the hawk and fox and
coon and other birds and beasts of prey
hunt after their favorite food. For a
very considerable time they were able
to crafty their appetites in this direc-
ton without much difficulty, for the
marsh abounded in snakes, and espe-
cially in the massasauga, or SAUCER"
as it is commonly called-a short and
thick hue especially venomous variety
of the rattle snake.
After a time, however, the snakes be-
gan to isappear-doubtless due in a
great measure to the destructive energy
of the hogs-and then the latter
began to develop a cunning and per-
sistence in the pursuit of their prey that
would have been credit to a thorough
bred and well-trained hunting dog. They
would hunt about for the trail of a
"sauger," just as the fox hound casts
about for the trail of fox, and, once
having found it, would follow it I'M
erringly through the thick marsh grass
and dense swampy thickets until they
had oyertaken and destroyed the object
of their pursuit.
Of the 'sauger"'r they had apparently
not the slightest fear, despite the very
venomous character of its bite, for its
ordinarily virulent poison had but little
effect upon them, but for the "blue-
ro nnr,'' thou caanad fo antartoin varu
wholesome regard, and they would sell
dom attack large one unless two or
more of them were together. The reason
for this doubtless lay in the fact that
the "racer," owing to its agility, would
very frequently evade their first savage
attack land would then coil tightly about
their necks, its powerful constructor
muscles not infrequently drawing so
tight as to choke them to death.
1t is quite possible that this was the
reason why they hunted so frequently in
pairs, for two of them could readily
make away with the largest tracer"
In any event, this was the course that
they generally pursued, although it was
not uncommon for several of them to |
hunt together in a pack, much the same |
as wolves are accustomed to do. If a |
tracer" CHANGED to coil about the neck |
of one of them when two were hunting |
together the other would Immediately |
lay savage hold of it with its teeth and
bite and tear it so ferociously that it |
was glad to relax its coils and escape, |
if possible. But it seldom succeeded in |
this, and when the sharp hoOfs had |
beaten it to death a savage fight over
the spoils was by no means of infre-
luent occurrence.
When two of them were hunting to- |
yether and not upon the same trail, the |
one discovering the serpent would indi-
cate the fact to the other by a series of |
peculiarly sharp, shrill grunts, where |
upon the latter would Immediately join !
the first one, and, after q survey of the |
situation, the two would begin their at |
tack. Stationed on opposite sides of the |
snake, they would paw the ground for
several minutes frequently, keeping up
a sharp, savage grunting all the time, |
and then at an opportune moment one |
Of them would jump on the serpent, its |
purpose being to cut it to pieces with its
sharp hooffs. If for any reason it failed,
the other would come to it's rescue and |
between them they generally made short |
work of the largest snake.
Many stories are. of course, told con- |
corning these strange encounters, which |
in some instances reached the dignity of |
pitched battles, whole colonies of snakes |
being arrayed on the one side and several
hogs on the other.
Probably the most interesting of these |
Is the battle which an itenerant medicine |
peddler named Lovejoy claimed to have |
seen early one summer morning on the |
and just at the head of the stream
which flows from what is called "Big |
Portage" lake to the Little Portage"
lake. A road crosses the stream at that |
point, and before Lovejoy reached the
bridge his attention was attracted by
the curious action of eight or ten hogs,
which were paving the earth and dashing
back and forth to an accompaniment OF
sharp, shrilling grunts. They were evil
IDENTIFY greatly excited and angered about
and Lovejoy, who had heard
of "the snake hunters" decided at once
that these were band of them and that
they were about to attack some snakes,
and, being anxious to witness one of the
strange conflicts which he had heard so
much about, he dismounted and fasten-
ing his horse, walked toward the hogs.
AS he drew near he was astonished to
see the stream close to the bank agitated
by the movements of countless black
water snakes, many of which seemed to
be of enormous size. The latter churned
the water into foam with their rapid
and it was quite apparent
that they were fully as angry as the hogs
and as ready to do battle. 1t was ey-
idant however that they shreWdly de-