The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-07
4 RATTLEB,S PARADISE.
Arizona a Natural Breeding Ground of the
 ReptiIes.

Arizona Natural Breeding Ground of tn, Reptiles
 There is no locality in the Union, SC
 Professor Palmer of the Smithsonian
 Institution says, that It is, so natural 6
 breeding ground for the rattlesnake-
 the Crotalus horridus-as southern Ari
 zona, writes a Benson, Arizona, cores.
 pendent of the St. Louis Globe-D Demo.
 crat Similar authority is quoted tc
 the effect that there is scarcely a more l Venomous reptile in the country than
 the bloated rattler of this region. The
 rocks of the mountains and foothills are
 a heavy yellow and gray color, and the
 soil is so nearly the hues of rattler
 that snake can move slowly along and be hardly perceived by a person
 fifty feet away. The hot, dry air, and
 the warm, sandy earth, through at
 least ten months in the year, and the
 immense quantity of smallt birds and l ground squirrels in the mountain can yons and brush, all combine to make life for rattlesnakes in this region one
 of rare ease and comfort for many a | long year.
 There are literally tens of thousands of rattlers in the sage brush and chap arral along the edge of. the southern Ar izona wastes. They grow to enormous size, and it is common to read in the nf Ia r.. II 4a,, ritory items of news of the capture of
 rattlesnakes five and six feet long and With fourteen and fifteen rattles Lo-
 calities and objects of nature all over
 the territory have been named from the
 serpents. There are rattlesnake can
 yons, rattlesnake arroyos, rattlesnake
 creeks, rattlesnake mountains and rat
 tlesnake gulches. Over at Maricopa an
 old fellow has named his dispensary of
 intoXicants after the most venomous
 American snakes, and "Rattlesnake
 Roost," painted in clumsy letters,
 stands in bold relief over the door.
 The best-informed man in regard to rattlers in this part of the territory is acknowledged to be Jim Davis. He is about sixty-five years old, and has lived on the borders of civilization for fifty years. He is one of the large army of men who were eternally demoralized by the gold booms in California years ago. and became relegated to a deyil-may- care, Independent and ppy-go-lucky way of getting his living by using his gun and by travelling across the moun- tains and over the valleys with a blan- ket and a skillet across his back. Eve ry one says that for unadulterated snake information there's no one like Rattler Jim.
 ''Do I know much about rattIe- snakes?" said the old man as he sat tipped back in a chair, sucking a vile corncob pipe, in saloon in this place the other day You bet yer life I know thing or two about 'em. I've killed thousands of 'em I've been here In this snake country just close onto twen- | ty-four years, and never have been out of 1t. l could sit all night and keep | telling you something new every min ute about rattlesnakes Gosh! how I | hate the varmints. never miss trying | to kill 'em off. but it's about useless tryin' to clear out this here country of | They breed so darned easy. | Every female rattler is good for thirty | or forty rattlesnakes a year, so I've | about given up tryin' to do anything more at snake killin'.
 "This is the dryest year we've had in a long time in this end of the territory, and it's an awful season for snakes. It is so dry and we have had terrible hot weather since May. These here locust bugs are all over the country, and they buzz just like the rattlers. Whenever I'm out hunting and kick bush a whole swarm of locusts, buzzfn for all they're worth, come flying out. Their singin' puts me off my guard, because I can't hear the rattlesnakes a rattlin'. I'm most afraid to hunt at all now. for you know it's just about certain sure leath for an old white man like me to get Arizona rattlesnake venom in his body at the end of long summer. I'd 4 'ather be shot plum through the chest thy day than to take chances on pullin' trough a pizenin' by desert rattler. when he is puffed up plum full of pizen IS they are now. At some seasons of he year there ain't anywhere near as much danger from rattlesnakes.
 "But Arizona rattlesnakes ain't near O dangerous in some ways as them Ised to be back in the mountains of and Ohio. The desert attlers are fat and lazy. They ain't 'ot no fight in 'em, They ain't got no ] cal meanness in 'em. As a general ! hing the Arizona crawler will set up {
 rattle and slide off in the rocks or rush. Horses, cattle and sheep know hat rattle as well as a man. Some mes they get bit, but that is only -hen they tread on a snake It ain't kelly to kill sheep if he is struck in he wool A wild deer will kill a snake very time he sees him. He iunps -ith all four feet together on to a snake nd is off and gone so quick that lake can't hit him. "A hog will kill 'em, too, and lakes poison don't hurt fat hog. ave seen many a dog that would kill nv rattlesnake he'd come acrost. He cts bit, of course, sometimes. but henever he's bit you may notice thai e'll go off away from the house aId ay two or three days. He's doctorin, N sself then. He lays in the mud and c ater, and when an Injin is bit he does N 'etty much the same. He will mi N ud on the bite or jis go and lay in the Q esh mud until the swellin' goes down x