Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-06-15
BIacksnake Big as a Log.

ut IlOSb tth VI
snakes anywhere, | guess" said
Judge B. Jugg Wright, of Steuben
county, Giles off to the south off
of old Steuben, in big stretch of
deep, dark woods in Potter county,
Pa, known as the Black Forest
1t is a black snake den. A year
never goes by that one or two i'm
mense blacksnakes are not over
powered by superior numbers o.
lumbermen, or bark peelers over
there, as they are always prowling
about looking for unwaryteamsters
and unsuspecting persons afoot. !
don't suppose there is another spot
on the continent where such mon
StrOus blacksnakes can be found.
| don't known what it is that
makes them grow 50 big, but my
opinion is that the locality is 50
wild and hard to get at that the
snakes have undisturbed opportun-
ity to reach a patriarchial age and
taken ON size with their years, |
| believe that blacksnakcs " uld
get just as big elsewhere if they
could only get the time
"There is no doubt in d mind
that some of those Blacl Forest
serpents were born long fore this
country was first settled | have
seen them with their faces as
wrinkled as a walnut, and with
long, gray hair on their upper lips,
My brother-in-law, Squire Hollis,
of Woodruff. tells about one that
he killed down there once that had
a funny looking lump on its head.
He cut down into the lump six
inches or so and found flint
arrow head at the bottom of it.
There could be but one explanation
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 must 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 bet that snake was a
good deal more than a hundred
years old, and it was as hale and
hearty as Il serpent could be.
II say Squire Hollis killed that
snake, but that is hardly u correct
statement. lie was numbering
over in that region, and had lot
of logs banked for rolling down the
steep slope into the creek, Acct
dentally q log got loose, and away
it went down hill. 1t had gone
maybe half way down, and had
taken on tremendous momentum,
when this snake came tearing out
from some place where it had been
hiding, and rushed 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 ac-
cumulated. The crash was terrific
and 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 would
MT have known which was the
snake and which was the log, they
We're 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
it into the creek after he had cut
the lump and found the arrow
head, and letting it float away
without measuring it, because he
never could tell how long the SER
pent was. The Squire says, though,
that if the snake could have been
seasoned and sawed up it would
have cut up into as nice a pile of
sixteen-foot boards foot and a
half wide as any one ever bought.
That snake, of course, was an ex-
ception to the ordinary run of
Black Forest snakes, and from
what the Squire says, there isn't
any doubt at all in my mind that
it was the founder Of the black
snake family in that country.
There wasn't a gray hair on him,
though, and his teeth were as
sound as d pebble. New York
Sun.
Says Admiral Dewey.
At Hong Kong, Admiral Dewey
4. /