The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-16
IN WATERFRONT.

lelioF oI NoNd 5cOlla f1lil.
 Curtis Daytons swamp, says the Waterbury American, has been known these many years by young and old as the finest place in our town for berries of all kinds, when in season. Here huckleberries, billberries, blackberiles, raspberries, cranberries and every othA CT kind of berries which can be found in New England town, abound, not by the bushel, but by the ton. People who have been berrying there have hardly left home with their empty pails when they returned again with them full, and it was the common saying by all if they saw fine berries offered for sale anywhere, "These were picked in Curtis Dayton's swamp. But if 1t was fine berrying spot it was also one of
 the finest, if not the finest hunting
 place in the whole town, for here game
 of all kinds could be found at any and
 all times whether in or out Of season;
 and the game killed here was like the
 berries, for it was not only larger but
 more tender and delicious than game killed at other parts, and could be easl-
 ly distinguished from game killed else-
 where. The whole swamp is surround
 ed on all sides by a dense forest, and
 some parts of it are impenetrable on
 account of it's spongy and dangerous
 surface, which, if report is true, are in
 some places bottomless. as poles as
 long as could be found have never reached bottom. Besides this several
 hunters in years gone by, while hunt
 ing there, have lost their dogs, and a
 number of cattle that have strayed in
 here were never seen again, although
 the woods had been searched from one
 part of the swamp to the other. Or late years hunters have not been able
 to induce their dogs to enter this
 swamp at all, and the whole place has
 been summed both by man and beast
 During the past season Seth Bassett,
 who is about as good a berry picker as can be found anywhere, penetrated a little distance into the swamp once or twice, and each time came home with bushels of them. One day he started as usual for tire swamp to i'll his pals,
 but he had advanced only few steps when he was seen coming out of the same, going at the rate of race horse.
 Those who saw him say he looked as white as a ghost and that his eyes re- sembled silver dollars protruding far out of their sockets, and that one of his shoes flew over twenty feet in the air in the rapidity of his flight, while not even
 the fastest horse that ever trotted on
 the Waterbury track could have kept
 in sight of him. It took several hours
 before he had regained his natural
 breath, and when finally fully recov-s cred he told of having seen one of the
 largest snakes that he had ever seen in
 any menagerie. He had found a place
 where the berries were so thick and plenty that all he needed to do was to hold his pail and shake one Of the
 bushes and the pail was full. He had filled all of his pails and was about starting for home, when he saw right
 ahead of him huge oak tree waving hither and thither as if swayed by hurricane He was more than sur prised to see the tree move, as there was not a breath of air stirring any where. but, on looking closer he discov- cred to his horror that the motion Of the tree was caused by a monstrous
 snake, which was rocking itself for all | it was worth. He was spell bound for moment or two and his legs refused 1 to move, when he noticed large hawk flying in close proximity to the tree, with the intention, no doubt, of taking l it's daily siesta on 1t, when the snake l shot out of the branches, and, before I the poor hawk could utter even sound | 1t was in the coil of the monster. who 1 devoured it instantly. MT. Bassett 1 further is reported to have said that l the snake to all appearance must be | about thirty feet long, as coil after coil disappeared In the branches, causing
 them to snap asunder like pipe stems. l The snake, according to the descrip- tion, resembles the python species, and is altogether different from the one
 seen time and again on Nova Scotia | hill How this monster snake ever l came here is the question, as 1t belongs l to a species not found in this climate, and the only conclusion that one can i arrive at is that it must have escaped 1 from some menagerie and made it's home in this swamp, where 1t lives 1 during the winter months deep in the | bowels of the earth MT. Bassett feels very badly to think of the many tons I of berries to go to waste, but he would 1 not penetrate into that swamp again 1 for all the money in these United 1 States, much less for the berries
 I