Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-06
Tusk and Coil
By DALLAS LORE SHARP.


 nID I ever have an adventure?
 D We'll, no: but still, if you can call big scare an adventure then I have had one, at least. A museum makers life is as humdrum, for the most part, as the average mans, though once in awhile he is pretty sure to have strange berth. The nearest I ever came to escaping was from this specimen here" He point ed to jar in which hung the head and skin of what had once been huge dia- mond rattlesnake. ::
 "It was while I was collecting rep tiles on the Altamaha river. We had been along Cedar creek and were mak- ing across the swamp toward the rail- road at Lumber City. We had been cut several days and every bag was full. I never saw snakes as we saw them there. If there is a snake heaven anywhere, then it lies in that stretch of swamp between Cedar Creek and Lumber City. And that is original, bona fide swamp, too, along the AL tamaha. I had heard of dismal swamps, and thought had seen them, but never till eamped among the cypress of the Altamaha. /
 ''The day before we reached the railroad we caught this big fellow here in the bottle. We had to spill out a whole bagful of smaller specimens to make room for him, but he was the largest and the most beautifully wicked rattlesnake I had ever seen. IT Y q feet long, thicker in the middle than my upper arm, and all a-glitter with color and malice. a-s5 a{
 ''There was no serpentine taper and grace about him. Not any. Power only, and malignity, compressed and concentrated. His body was sawed square off at the tail, and his thick neck swelled into the head that you see here. Put poison into those heavy jaws and a glitter into those eyes and you will have a face as devilish as ever craw1ed the earth.
 ''We had a tussle to bag him. We finally got him, however, without a rucked scale or broken fang. Coombs, naturalist along with me, shouldered him for the afternoon and we kept on toward the station. Along near night we struck a trail, but the blazings were few and faint and there were no signs of a cabin in sight when the darkness began to fall. It was time to look sharp for a bed. In half an hour more the swamp would be as black as the heart of the Catacombs. There is no place on earth where the darkness falls faster and thicker than in those cypress swamps of the south.
 "We soon found a little knoll that was high enough to give us 8 dry the foot of cypress, we laid down within easy reach of them and began to wait for daylight.
 ''Sleep seemed out of the question. We hadn't even an overcoat for cover ing, and it was along in October. We put our backs together and warmed up a little; but the night air had deadly chill in it. It was grewsome place, too. The silence was awful. There is something about tall cy- press with it's draping moss, some- thing in the depth and stirlessness of the night in those great swamps, that's like the grave. It was so still l that I seemed to hear the cypress needles let go and fall. The autumn 1 had come far enough to hush the in- sects; but off in the dead, dark calm 1 the cry of an owl now and then or ] the whinny of coon would give the, 1 quiet tongue.
 ''For long time it was struggle between weariness and cold; but at | last weariness won the field, and we went to sleep.
 ''It must have been near midnight I | don't know. But the moon was high above the swamp, when l felt her light upon my face. Nothing ever touched me more softly than the fingers of that moonbeam. Nothing ever woke me more thoroughly. The scream of a wild cat, the touch of cold steel, could not have done it more effectual- ly. And yet, I had not moved a muscle. could not. The soft touch that woke me gripped me like death.
 ''I had rolled completely over in my sleep, and now lay f2eing Coombs. He had turned upon n1s back and was sleeping soundly with his face toward the sky.
 1T knew by every atom of me that was in danger. I had heard nothing, seen nothing, felt nothing, yet 1 was aware before I knew was awake, that something threatened. I was scarce 1y an instant taking in Coombs posi- ton, when I caught glint of some ] thing on his breast, and saw in the dim. half light 4he form of a huge