The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-08-21
FIERCE SNAKE FIGHT
A WONDERFUL BATTLE BETWEEN A
BLACK AND A RATHER.

| clearing, when the unmistakablc rattle
of snake arrested us, and In few min
utcs we saw the beginning of fierce en-
counter between two deadly enemies, a
! blacksnake and rattle. These two
branches of the snake family are hered-
itary and implacable foes. Between
them there can be neither fellowship.
amity, compromise nor even armed neu-
trality War to the death is their I'M
alterable law from generation to genera
ton. The blacksnake Is much smaller
than the rattle, but he is terribly for
midable foe, and us science Is superior to
mere size or strength he generally comes
out of the fray victorious. He seems to
scent the battle Tor, rather, the rattie)
from afar" and gives himself no rest
until he gains point of vantage from
which he can make a sudden swoop upon
the noisy foe. On this occasion we did
not see the blacksnake until he leaped on
the rattle's throat, nor could we after
ward make out how he had got SO near
without being seen. That power Of 81
lent, stealthy, rapid movement gives the
black fellow an immense advantage over
the rafting enemy. 1t is that, indeed,
on which his hope of victory mainly de-
ponds. Let the blacky by a sudden leap
grasp the throat of the unwary rattle,
and the chances are he will never let go
again until death them do part" but il
that first chance be lost and the two
meet in fair fight after fair warning the
fangs of the rattle are pretty sure to gain
him the victory.
In this instance no such misfortune
was the blacky's. He made his spring and
got his grip Of the throat. and there he
held on ''like grim death" With fury
that was sometimes awful the rattle
wriggled and shook and rolled and with
ed He leapcd into the air, twisted and
tossed himself about, banged his assail-
ant down on the ground, rolled on him
and over him, but all In vain. Blacky
simply stuck Nothing could move him.
nothing tempt him or compel him to relax
his hold for single moment. 10 have
done SO would have been almost certain
death to himself, but through all the
rcarings, leapings, tOssings, writings
and hissings of his victim on be held with
a relentless tcnacity that was equal only
to his love of his own life and his hate of
his foes.
Thus for more than an hour and half
the life and death game was kept up
without minutes intermission and with
out any sign of weakening on either side. .
Then we perceived that the rattle's
strength seemed to be giving way, and all
of n sudden he cOied himself up and lay
still, as il to die. Whether 1t was from
sheer exhaustion or only n ruse to deceive
his enemy, faint or feint, We were not
sure. We thought it was the former, but
blacky evidently thought otherwise. He
understood his enemy better than we did
and did not mean to be tricked. Down
he lay by the side of the PROSTATE victim,
but with his teeth firmly set in the now
torn and crumplcd throat.
Then after quiet interval, the one
sided truce having come to an end or the
ruse having failed, the rattle rose again
and resumed the unequal struggle with
the energy of dcsperation--a supreme
struggle for life. Again he reared and
rolled and coied and dnrted up and down
forward and backward carrying his enc
my with him in all his contortions, trying
by every conceivable twist to get his
fangs into the mcrcless foe. but all in
vain. Then we began to see in the poor
victim renewed signs Of failing strength,
but Notwithstanding increasing weakness
he struggled for time continuously, then
intermittently, until, more than two hours
and n half after the first attack, the poor
rattle gave up the contest and lay down
to die. This time it was no ruse. The
poor fellow was done for, and within 10
or Is minutes after the mute surrender
he yielded up the ghost. But even then
blacky still stuck, and it was not until
the corpse began to stiffcn that he for the
first time withdrew the nails which had
been driven nearly three hours before in
to the sure place-the throat of the un-
happy rattle.
comedy began, and comedy indeed it
was. at any rate to the two spectators.
On the part of the victor there was no
sign of triumph, no dancing around the
PROSTATE enemy, but with all possible
staidness and strnightforwardness the
hero prepared for, the celebration of his
victory. He began by stretching and
Strengthening out the lifelcss body,
smoothing out every crease and every
wrinkle on its scaly surface, with what
intent we could not even guess. He
seemed to have assumed the role of I'M
dertakcr and to be preparing the corpse
for decent burial, magnanimous toward
brave though defeated foe. Not twist
or wrinkle was left upon the carcass
from tip to toe from nose to outstretched
tail. Then, to our greater bewilderment,
we saw that he was licking the body
from end to end, making straight paral-
lei lines of saliva along it's entire length,
which, with the rays of the setting sun
falling on it, exhibited all its varied hucs
and made us long for its possession that