The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-03-29
the GILA MONSTER
IS NOT A MYTH
Smithsonian Institute Scientist De-
c|ares 1t Most Poisonous Rep
tile in North America.
DISCOVERIES IN coCopAH DESERT
Che Blasted Region at the Mouth of the
Rio Colorado Abounds In ella Mon
stcrs and Many Other Varieties
of Deadly Reptiles.

Los Angeles, Cal, special: Prof. My
ron P. Kirk, formerly of the Smithson-
ian institution, has come in from a
year OF scientific exploration and col
lection out across the Cocupah desert
IN the most desolate, forbidding and
blasted region in the union-where Ari-
sona, California and Sonora, Mex,
come together at the mouth of the
muddy Rio Colorado. He has a marvel
GUS collection of specimens of reptil-
ian and insect life on the desert wastes,
and as soon as they are catalogued and
made ready for museum uses he will
ship them to Harvard university.
Il have found three new varieties of
the Glla monster in the Cocopah desert
region said Prof. Kirk, "and I be-
!leFe 1 have some scientific informa-
ton about the most Venomous reptile
In North America. For twenty years
have been travelling up and down the
country, across the deserts and in the
mountains. getting the strangest speci-
mems of animal life. And among TIE
oldest in all my experience is the Gila
monster Now, to this day. many peo-
pie think there is no such thing as the
iila monster. And yet, throughout the
colorado desert, especially along the
Illa river, you may encounter thou
sands. On the contrary, TOO, you may
scarcely see one.
Head as Big Teacup.
The Gila monster is almost as thick
as your arm and eighteen or twenty
inches long, 1t has a head which is
pretty near all mouth and opens clear
back to its ears. The head is about as
big as a common teacup, set with lit
tie vicious eyes, and the mouth is pow
erfully muscled and set with four sharp
tangs and lot Of grinders. The color
OF the monster is reddish, with brown
spots. 1t has blunt tail, as nearly
all poisonous lizards have
Il found the monster living in the
hot sand. They are not good to fool
with, and a man who Is in the Gila
monster business must know what he is
about. One day last June I pulled up
from the hot desert to little ranch on
the Colorado river. The man who
owned the place had pet Gila monster
which he kept in a barrel. He stopped
down to get him out to show him to me
and some friends, of his who were there
and the monster shut down on his
thumb. He gripped it SO tight in his
awful mouth, which was like a wise,
| that his jaws had to be pried open with
an iron bar. The man lived only a few
hours, and died in terrible spasms.
Another man bitten while / was down
there has ever since been paralyzed in
the side. Hardly anybody ever gets
over bite from this terrible animal.
Shriveled His Arm.
What physical effects come to a man
who has escaped death from poison by
Gila monster? Why, have seen sew
.ral different results. For instance
| there was a case of barkeeper in Ben
son some years ago. He had pet ella
| monster that he kept in box on the
| bar, and sometimes he would let it out
and play with it, He ridiculed stories
the cowpunchers told about the poison
of Gila monsters. He would put one
| finger in It's mouth and drag it up and
| down the bar, and the thing seemed to
enter into the fun, and would hold
back and wiggle it's tail and appear as
| pleased as a dog. l told him once that
he was taking terrible chances, and
that some day the monster would bite
| him, just as sure as fate. But he only
( laughed at the idea of it's biting him
j. knew him so well-and even il it
should he didn't believe it would be
| poisonous
We'll, one day he put his finger into
it's mouth when it didn't happen to feel
good and 1T sent it's teeth to
| the bone. Its jaws closed down like 4
wise, and the men in the saloon couldn't
| pry them open. 1t just sat there and
| blinked it's wicked eyes at them and
held on, and they had to cut it's head
| off before they could make it let go.
| That poor fellows arm soon began to
; swell and he suffered intense pain in
| his arm and hand and in his back. And
after a While the flesh began to shrlvel
and the muscles to become weak, and
| inside of three months the whole arm
| from the shoulder down was as shriv-
e,ed and helpless as paralytic's. That
was some four or five years ago, but
| his arm remains in that condition to
tiis day, and there's no prospect that
lie II ever have the use of It. There
! .vs S no permanently III effect, nothing
but the temporary pain in any part of
| his body.
| Eject III Bite on Girl.
"The postmaster at Nogales Con the
boundary line between Arizona and
Mexico) told me of little Yuma In
| lian girl who stepped on Gila mon
ster one night In the dark along the
mud banks of the Colorado river sew
eral miles below Yuma. She was bit
ten in the ankle. Two army physicians
| We're called at once. and by the use of
| powerful drugs they managed to save
the girls life, but she was crazy with
| pain for two weeks Her leg and foot
| from the knee down have been so ten
| der that now, some seven years since
the bite, she cannot bear. the least pres
: SIRE or weight on those members with