Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-10-30
THE POWER OF SCENT.
Instances Showing That RattleSnAkes Have
 It tO a Wonderful Extent.


 I don know whether rattlesnakes have the power of scent or not, but from what I have heard, and espe- cially from what I have seen, it would seem to me that they not only have that power, but have it to a most remarkable degree. One summer in northern Pennsylvania 1 killed a fine specimen of a rattler and carried it on a stick two miles to tho place where I was stopping. A native of that locality on seeing the snake said:
 That's a she rattler, and you folks around here want to watch out. Her mate will be along looking for her tomorrow or next day, sure.
 l skinned the snake and took the carcass to tho hogpen and gave it to the hogs and thought no more about it. Next forenoon 1 heard a loud scream from one of the women of the family, and she came running into the house declaring that she had seen a big rattlesnake on the front stoop.
 The first time, " she said, that a live rattlesnake has been around the house in 25 years. !"
 hurried out, but could see noth- ing of the snake. It occurred to me then what the native had said about the mate of the dead snake follow ing her. walked toward the hog pen, and there I discovered a rattle snake moving to and fro on the ground in front of the sty and act ing as if it were looking for place to get in. I watched the maneuvers of the snake for a few minutes and then killed it. The snake was a male, and the native at once declared that it was the mate of the one had killed the day before. The front stoop where this snake had just made its appearance at the house was the first place I had stopped with the dead snake and gone from there with it to the hOgpen.
 I perhaps, in spite of the circum- stantial evidence against it, would never have believed that this snake was anything else but one that had come casually to the premises if a similar incident hadn't occurred a couple of days later. A man who was working in having on the place lived four miles distant and went home Saturday night to spend Sun day. On his way back Sunday after noon he killed a rattlesnake in the road and brought it in. It happened to be a female, and warning was given that a lookout better be kept for its male. As a matter of curiosi- ty took the dead snake from where it had been laid in the road near the house and took it to an old vacant house in a field half a mile down the road from the place where l was stopping. I left the snake there, and next day went back to the old house to see if any snake would fol- low it there, keeping watch along the road Along in the middle of the forenoon saw a big snake con- ing down the road, and I got into clump of bushes The snake came into the field. It was a rattler, and it made straight for the house. l followed it. It went in at the open door. The dead snake lay on the floor. The live one went up to it and around it several times and then lay still, as if thinking the matter over. I watched the snake for ten minutes, and he never moved. Then I stepped inside the door. Like a flash the snake threw himself into a coil and faced me, glaring tiercely and making his rattles sing. didn't like his looks and shot him with my revolver no longer had any doubt that the snak' of the week before was the mate to the oneI had killed and was satisfied that this one was the mate of the hired mans victim. But how had they followed the trails of their dead wives? That's what has always puzzled me.-New York Sun.