The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-09
MOsELEY's BALL OF SNAKES.

When He Captured Them They Were
 All in a Tangle-But When They
 Thawed Out He Had About Bushel
 and a Half-There Were One Hun
 dred and Forty Seven in All-Mose-
 ley's Den Hung With Trophies of
 Rattlers.
 Henry Mose1ey, who Is at present a resident of Wolcott, captured more than a bushel and a half of semi-torpid rattlesnakes at the foot of Rattlesnake Hill, below Thomaston, a few days ago The snakes were being thawed out by the rays of the warm spring sun. The haul was an unusually large one even for that snake country,
 Moseley is a native of Massachusetts. He and his musical instrument are in- separable, and both are in great de- mand at the countryside dances. His banjo goes with him everywhere, and he usually punctuates his stories with occasional plunks on the strings. Along the caves of his shanty are hang ing rows of the snakes taken in his re- cent haul, strung by the heads on sticks so placed that the sun may have an op- portunity to loosen their skins.
 "I am not much of hand at spin ming snake yarn" said Moseley mod estly, 'but there were some things about this last catch of mine on Rattle snake Hill that were unusually inter esting to me and prove to my mind that the rattler has memory as good as your or mine. I am satisfied that the rattler never gets so far away from home but that it can find it's way back, and that's more than any other snake or four-footed animal can do. From the quantity of snakes I got, l judge that they came to the hill from a dis tance of from five to fifty miles, for I know we don't have any such number of rattlers around here in the summer. They come back to the hill because it is treir birthplace and to spend the winter in a secure refuge.-
 Ever since I first came into. these parts so many rattlers have been taken about Rattlesnake Hill that I have known there must be a hibernating and ancestral den on it somewhere for the reptiles. Besides, was told that there was, and I've been trying to find the den. off and on, for long time. There was an old snake hunter named Hola- bud who informed me that great many years ago he'd seen hundreds and thousands of rattlers coming back to the hill from the surrounding country to spend the winter, and that they went into a den, where they rolled themselves into a big ball, to remain in a torpid state until the warm spring weather and the peep of the frogs would bring them out again.
 "Mr. Holabud was too feeble to show me where the den was, but he told me that he was sure 1t was the birthplace Of the rattlers, that they spread in all directions from there, and that their re- turn to it's protection from the life-kill- ing frosts, after a season of shifting for themselves, was as much a habit and a religious duty with them as the flying of birds to a warmer climate in winter But how they could remember to locate Rattlesnake Hill so certainly and re- turn to it every time Holabud said he
 could not see. I will tell you of one oi the experiments Holabud said he made to convince himself of the correctness of the rattler's memory in finding its
 way to its winter home. One time while shooting woodcock up in Goshen
 woods, probably twenty-five miles iron RattIesnake Hill, Holabud said he en'
 solntered 3 geIpg Eattlsr and be helc