The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-03-18
VICIOUS RATTLESN AXE.
Fight of Three Men with California
Reptile.

Fight of Three Men with California
Reptile.
san Diego Corr New York Tribune.
There was lively fight this week be-
tween a vicious old rattlesnake and three
men out at the La Mesa reservoir. As the
writer was descending the declivity on the
west side of the rocky gorge IN which the
reservoir tia IN is being built, lie espied IN
the shade of an overhanging rock huge
brown coil, suugly established as If to en-
joy n prolonged sleep. The diamond
markings Indicated that it was Rocky
Mountain RATHER. the most venomous
of all rattlesnakes on the North
American continent. The writer
Jumped back i'm horror from the death
dealing reptile. He had almost put ms
foot upon the snake. Fortunately. its
slumber was not disturbed. assistant
Engineer Hamilton Clark hastily sum
moned two laborers with lonG-handled
shovels. Tho men surrounded the sleep
ing snake. One of the men jabbed the
sharp edge of tho iron shovel into the
center of the diamond-marked mass.
Two streaks of rattlesnake shot out.
There was fury in it. The cruel shovel
held the brown streaks from lying into
the faces of the men, while ihe rattle
buzzed furiously. Well did they know
the meaning of that sound. The de dly
head of the disturbed snake waved about
vciously in an effort to strike the bodies
of its human tormenters. The long
handle of the shovel was struck again
and again 10y the snakes deadly fangs I'M
I'll large drops of venum discolored the
hard wood Here and there on the handle
we're tiny indentations made by the
needle-pointed fangs. The powerful tail
was wound tightly about the shovel handle
for fully three feet. The man holding the
shovel was careless. He thought the
| snake too easy a victim. Suddenly the
| reptile gave n tremendous jerk and car
| ried the shovel with it, leaving the laborer
| unprotected and much astonished. Ihe
| second man with the shovel quickly
pinned down the snake again, but not un-
| til il sunk it's fangs into the boot OF the
third man. Luckily. the leather protected
| the flesh from the snakes teeth. 1t alb
sorbed the poison, else the man wearing
| the boot would soon have been n corpse.
| The danger of continuing the fight was
| apparent. The third man procured a long
| club. At the proper moment lie struck
| the rattler's unprotected head and killed
| il. The reptile was over SIX feet long, tho
circumference of the body at the thickest
part being nearly nine inches. 1t had IA
rattles.
L. ). Babcock, manager OF Hotel del
Coronado, who returned day or two ago
from a weeks hunting on the Santa Mar
garta ranch, brought back a rattlesnake
measuring nine feet and five inches, with
II rattles. 1t is a little early for rattle
snakes; at this season they are usua ly
sluggisM But Mr.. Babcock's victim was
wide awake enough TO give n pack of
hounds lively tussle. One of the dogs,
struck in the neck. died in just 10 MN
utes This instance of the extreme viru
lence of the poison of the rattlesnake in
dictates that when fresh from its winter
slumber the rattler's venom is much
stronger and quicker acting than ter
season of wakefulness, when the venom
sacs have been emptied and replenished
frequently.
In this connection the statement OF a
geological authority is of interest. This
man says of all serpents caught alive fol-
purposes of exhibition not one in 90 sur
wives, and this waste of ophidian life is
due not to diseases of captivity, for there
are almost none, nor to i'll treatment,
but to the singular and ineXplicable fact
that most snakes never feed after captiv'
ity, but deliberately starve themselves tc
death in the presence of abundant food
This occurs even when the snake is given
what it likes, but it often happens be-
cause the particular article that the snake
prefers is absent.