The Portland daily press., 1899-09-06
FIERCE SNAKE FIGHT.
A wonderful Battle between Black
aud Rather.

the year. My friend and were refurn-
ing from tour which had carried ms far
into the bush. We were walking through
a clearing, when the unmistakablo- rattle
of snake arrested us. and in a few min.
utes we saw the beginning Of a fierce on.
counter between two deadly enemies.
blacksnake and rattle. These two
branches of the snake family are hered.
itary and impacable 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 a terribly for
midable foe, ana as 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 rattle)
from afar" and gives himself no rest
until be gains n 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 rattie'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 lean
grasp the throat of the unwary rattle.
and the chances are he will never let go
again until death them do part" but if
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 slike grim death" With a fury
that was sometimes awful the rattle
wriggled and shook and rolled and writh-
ed. He leaped 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. To have
done so would have been almost certain
death to himself, but through all the
hearings, leapings, tossings, writings
and hissings of his victim on he held with
a relentless tenacity 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 a 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 "a sudden he coiled himself up and lay
still, as if to die. Whether it was from
sheer exhaustion or only ruse to deceive
his enemy, faint or a 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 crumpled 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 desperation-a supreme
struggle for life. Again he reared and
rolled and coiled and darted up and down
forward and backward, carrying his enc
my with him in all his contortions, irving
by every conceivable twist to get his
fangs into the merciless 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
Internationally, until, more than two hours
and half after the first attack, the Door
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 10 minutes after the mute surrender
he yielded up the ghost. But even then
blaeky still stuck, and it was not until
the corpse began to stiffen 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 I'M
happy rattle.
Then, the tragedy being ended, the
comedy began, and a comedy indeed il
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 straightforwardness the
hero prepared for the celebration of his
victory. He began by stretching and
Strengthening out the lifeless 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
dertaker and to be preparing the corpse
for decent burial, magnanimous toward a
brave though defeated foe. Not a twist
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 Zines of saliva along its entire length,
which, with the rays Of the setting sun
falling ON it, exhibited all its varied hues
and made us long for its possession that
we might carry it away with us. But the
darky had something better to do than
indulge benevolent sentiment for our
qualification. For ten minutes or more
he continued his preparations, until he
made four or five streaks of saliva, which
shone like satin ribbons, laid horizontally
~ the dead body from end to end
Then blacky rose and shook himself and,
having done so, took up his position at
the head of his victim and calmly gazcd
Upon him with the first CLEAN of satisfac-
ion in his bright little eye. We were
,tili full of wonder and conjecture as to
mis- purpose, interment of some kind being
the only thing we yet thought Of But
then we saw him calmly open his mouth
10 its utmost capacity and take into it
the entire head of the defunct rattle;