Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-04-25
THE RATTLESNAKE.
COMMON ERRORS REGARDING ITS
FIGHTING ABILITIES.

Doesn't Have to Coil Before Striking and
Kills by a Blow-0uickly Replaces Lost
Fangs-He Will Not Go Out of His Way
to Attack Anything.
Nobody was ever bitten by rattle
snake, and nobody ever will be-" said
man who has studied them. ''And the
reason is the best that could possibly be.
A rattlesnake can't bite. 1t isn't likely
that any creature that lives and is pro-
vided with teeth and jaws has less pow
er of biting. The snakes jaws are not
hinged. They are attached to each other
by an elastic cartilage. Thus the snake
has no leverage whatever in closing one
jaw against the other, and if it attempt
ed to inflict injury by biting it couldn't
so much as pierce the skin. The fangs
of rattlesnake are driven into the
flesh by stroke, not bite, as is we'll
shown by the fact that punctures are
made only by the armament of the up
per jaw. The lower jaw has nothing to
do with the act. A man striking boat
hook into a log is an exact representa-
ton of the manner in which the rattle
you about some one else being bitten by
a rattlesnake bet him it isn't so. You'll
win. 1t is an impossibility for a rattle
snake to bite.
"But although the rattlesnake can't
bite, if you're fooling around in coun-
try where he is spending the summer,
you want to keep your eye peeled. And
there is one particular thing you don't
want to forget. 1t is a common and
widespread fallacy that a rattlesnake is
entirely harmless SO long as he is I'M
coiled. l believed that once and found
out by a startling personal experience
that it wasn't so. 1t is true that when
rattlesnake is stretched at full length,
with the muscles extended to the utmost,
he could not strike an inch forward,
but from that position he can strike
backward his full length and with
lightninglike velocity. One day drop
ped big stone Oh the head of a big
RATHER that lay in this position, crush
ing the head, the stone lying partly on
the head. After gazing for some time
at the quivering reptile so suddenly
taken from life, stopped down to re-
move his rattles. I had no sooner
touched his tail than his mutilated head
flew back, and almost grazing my
cheek struck the sleeve of my coat just
below the shoulder, where both fangs
were buried, pulling out of the jaw and
remaining i'll the sleeve as the snake
fell back to the ground. They had not
missed my cheek by more than hairs
breadth. With precaution I have made
that test of a rattlesnake's capacity of
striking i'll that way many times since
then, and the snake always struck. The
instinct is so strong i'll this rel lie that
I have known a RATHER two hours after
its head was severed from its body to
strike back fiercely with its bleeding
stump the instant it's tail was touched.
"But the typical position of the rat
tlesnake when intent on deadly assault
is the coil. This is not always a SYM
metrical spiral, but the body is massed
in more or less regular folds, the mus
Giles are contracted, and the reptile is
literally an animate set spring. From
this position the RATHER can spring from
one-half to two-thirds of his length.
Before the stroke the mouth is opened
wide, the fangs falling down from their
sockets in the upper jaw and standing
firmly in their position. The head is
thrust forward, the half coils below it
being Strengthened out to lengthen the
neck and to give power to the strike.
There is no preliminary motion. The
stab is made with abrupt swiftness that
deties escape of the victim. There is but
one strike. The snake passes back into
its coil again with the same swiftness
that it threw itself out. AS the fangs
enter the flesh the venom is injected. If
the thing struck at is beyond the rat
tier reach, the snake has the power of
squirting its venom in jets, which it
can do to distance of four feet or more.
Sometimes a rattlesnake loses it's
fangs in the flesh of the object it strikes,
but that does only temporary damage
to its deadly armory. There are plenty
of incipient fangs lying in the jaw, only
waiting for a chance like that to come
forward and be in line for business.
They grow very fast, and in the course
of two OF three days rattlesnake that
has lost its fangs is reftted with a
"" anu NOW pttil. Ills 10 SOOu tuluS
to remember, for it is the popular be-
lief that rattler is made harmless by
extracting its venom fangs. The only
way to render one of these reptiles
harmless, besides killing it, is to apply
redhot iron to the cavities left by the
fangs. This will destroy all the vitality
of these dangerous parts, and new fangs
will not come in.
'"The rattlesnake never pursues his
prey; he waits. He will not go out of
his way to attack anything He will in
variably keep on his course if not cor
nered or leased You may step within
four inches of rattlesnake and will
not be disturbed by it if you keep right
on your way. If you stop, the snake at
once will take it for challenge and
hit you only too quick 1t is said, as if
by authority, that the rattlesnake never
sounds his rattle until he has coiled. If
that is so, rattlesnakes that have seen
must have been freaks, for they have
ratified when lying at full length and
even WHEN moving, as well as in their
coils. The RATHER, when travelling, will
cross lakes and streams, and he swims
with his head and his rattles raised
well above the water. The forca with
which rattlesnake can strike is such
that once leased one into striking at a
piece of betting at least quarter of an
inch thick, and he sent his fangs clear