The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-28
a PoOBFULL OF SNAKES.
Discovery of a sober Guide on. a
eIOuntIiin In tile North of Maine.


From the New York Sun.
Foxcroft, Me-, Noy., 16.-There are high
er mountains in Maine than Boarstone.
but none is more impressive in appear
ance than this massive eminence, which
looms, fierce and beetling, against the
sky, five miles beyond the head of Sebec
Lake. Its isolation from the other noun
tains of the chain which fills the whole
landscape in the north, as well as its
bold, massive contours, and dark brist
ing surface, makes it conspicuous and
Striking IN appearance, and from every
direction II can be seen at a distance of
many miles. 1t has two peaks with a
long sag, or saddle ridge, between them
IN this lofty depression are several ponds
OF great depth, with no visible inlets or
outlets. These ponds, it has long been
known, contain no fish, but that one of
them is strangely and unpleasantly pop
ulated. John Robbins of FoXcroft, man
OF sound mind. sober habits, and unim-
peached veracity, offers his testimony.
1t was last September that Robbins
Was guloe 70 a party or tourists making
the ascent of Boarstone. They had taken
a route different from that usually fol-
lowed by the mountain climbers. and
they prepared toward night to go into
camp near one of the ponds in the depres-
sion between the two peaks. Upon this
pona, whose surface they could discern
az the bottom of the deep basin which en-
closes it, they relied for the water they
would need for camp use. Owing to the
steepness and rocky character of its
shores, it was difficult to get down to the
water, but Robbins carrying a camp ket-
tie succeeded in making the descent to
the edge There from a large rock he
dipped up a kettleful of water.
He did not much like the looks of the
pond as seen close at hand. The rocky
walls that surrounded it were steep and
fOrbidding, and devoid of vegetation
The pool at the foot was oblong in shape
200 feet long by 100 feet wide, and even
less attractive to view The water. in
which the rays of the sun were focused
from the basin-shaped walls of naked
stone, was warm and somewhat stag
nant. over much of its surface green
scum was ofiating, and in the shallow
parts was a growth of aquatic grass. All
over the surface appeared curious. dark
tinted prOtuberances which, by appear
ance, might have been the buds and thick
stems of some sort of aquatic plants
Although he didn't at all like the water
OF the place, or the quality of it. consid-
cred with reference to culinary use, he
stopped TO pick up the kettle, preparatory
to returning to camp. He dropped the bale
of the Kettle and started back i'm alarm
"JewhillikinS jeeswax. what's that2" he
CALCULATED staring down into the kettle
in boundless surprise. If it isn't a snake
In the kettle snake about fifteen inches
in length, was swimming lithely round
occasionally craning its head over the edge
of the vessel, as if calculating the adVisa-
bility OF going over the side in the attempt
to regain the pool. Robbins looked at the
water spreading wide in the basin before
him.
Jerusalem cricketsr' he gasped "The
ponds alive with emf
1t was even as he said. The queer dark
proturberances that he had seen above the
surface were the heads and necks of live
and healthy snakes, some lying still and
others swimming actively about. Every
movement he made seemed to set new de-
tachments of the reptiles into motion and
he discovered groups of them in new places
at each glance he gave around. 1t was no
hallucinatiOn. He knew his own capacity,
and the quantity and quality of the bev-
erages consumed during the trip by the
party, and he knew that his senses had
squeamish. but he has the usual human
prejudices against snakes, and this condi-
ton of things was too much for his nerves.
He emptied the kettle and found his way
up the rocks in haste. He went to hunting
for spring, and was content when he
found one at last to fill his kettle by slow
~ gathered cupfuls rather than resort to
the waters of the pool. Returning to camp
he told his story, and its truth was yeri-
fled by others of the party who had the
curiosity to inspect the snake-infested
pond.
The snakes are described as true water
serpents averaging from IS inches to feet
in length. They are green Of color, with a
brown longitudinal stripe on each side of
the body. Northern Maine is not prolific Of
snakes, and water snakes are infreQuent,
but here in the north at the altitude of this
lofty mountain top the conditions offered
by a pool sheltered from the wind and
gathering the sunshine have brought into
being a colony of reptiles that ordinarily
would be looked FOR only in ATTITUDES far
to the south.
The pool Is probably the same one discov-
cred by John Thorn I4ougee, a taXidermist,
who found IL while collecting animal spec
iinens and bird skins on the sebec noun
talns about twenty years ago. His des-
cription of n tallies almost precisely With
that given By John Robbins.