The National tribune., 1899-06-08
Black Snake as Big as q Hog.

Black Snake as Big as 4 Hog.
"The most wonderful den of snakes
anywhere l guess" said Judge B. Jugg
Wright, of Steuben County, Lies off to the
south of old Steuben, in a big stretch of
deep, dark woods in Potter County, Pa,
known as the Black Forest. 1t is black
snake den. A year never goes by that
one or two immense blacksnekes are not
overpowered by superior numbers of lum-
bermen or bark peelers over there, as
they are always prowling about looking
for unwary teamSterS and unSuSpectlng
persons afoot. l don't suppose there is
another spot on this continent where
such monstrous blacksnakes can De
found. ] don't know what it is that
makes them grow so big there, but my
opinion is that the locality is SO wild and
hard TO get at that the snakes have un-
disturbed opportunity to reach patrl-
archal age and take on size with thelr
years. | believe blacksnakes would get
Just as big elsewhere II they could only
get the time.
There is no doubt in my mind that
! some of those Black Forest scrpents were
born long before this country was set
tied. | have seen them with their faces
as wrinkled as walnut and with long
gray hair on their upper lips. My brother
about one he killed down there once that
had funny-lOoking lump on its side.
He cut down into the lump six inches ol
so and found a flint arrowhead at the
| bottom of it. There could be but one ex-
planat on OF the presence OF that arrow
| head there. The snake had been shot by
an Indian some time. AS there hadn't
| been any Indians hunting with bows and
arrows in that country for about three
generations, OF course the snake muSl
have been a lively native before the days
of the white man thereabout, and no
| body knows how many years before that
| either Squire Hollis is willing to be-
| that the snake was good deal more thar
100 years old, and it was as hale and
hearty as a serpent could be.
IL say that Squire Hollis killed thai
snake, but that is hardly correct state
ment. He was numbering over in thai
region and had lot Of logs banked fol
rolling down a steep slope into the creek
Accidentally log got loose, and away il
went down-hiIl. 1t had gone maybe half
| way down and had taken on tremendous
| momentum, when this snake came tear
| ing out from some place where it had beer
| hiding, and rushed right out in the path
of that flying log. There is no telling
what the snake thought the log was, but
he was evidently in a state of supreme
| fury at it, for he stopped and raised his
head up and waited the coming Of the
log The log kept right on and struck the
snake with all the force it had accumu-
lated. The crash was terrific, and the log
stopped as if it had brought up against a
rock. The Squire went down the hill
and found the log canted up against the
snake, and he declares yet that if he
hadn't seen the collision he wouldn't
have known which was the snake and
which was the log, they were so near of a
size. The snake was dead from the
shock, though, and Squire Hollis has
never ceased TO regret his foolishness in
rolling il into the creek after he had cut
the lump and found the arrowhead, and
letting it float away without measuring il
because he never could tell how long the
serpent was. The Squire says, though
that il the snake could have been season
ed and sawed up it would have cut vi
| into as nice pile of 16-foot boards foot
and a half wide as anyone ever bought
That snake, OF course, was an exception
| to the ordinary run of Black Fores
snakes, and from what the Squire says
| there isn't any doubt at all in my mint
! that it was the founder of the blacksnakt
family in that country. There wasn't &
gray hair on him, though, and his teett
were as sound as q pebble