The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-10-25

!Ll!! = lLll Quoted expeditions for
@Al@ snakes on behalf of the
New York sociological
Park, in the Bronx, II can recommend
certain parts of South Carolina above
any other section in the United States.
For example, four-mile swamp near
the little town of Robertsville, in
Hampton County, is snakes paradise.
Portions of the swamp are overgrown
with huge rushes and portions with
canebrake dovetailing into pine
swamps, the trees running forty feet
up to the first limb and hang thick
with green moss. Trees, ground and
water are alive with reptiles.
Snake hunting is as fascinating as
deer stalking, especially to man who
finds some meaning in every band on
a pit viper's back. No moose was
ever more ready to take alarm than are
these slippery quarries, and to land a
bagful of valuable snakes is a task
that calls for adrOitness mingled with
high quality of perseverance.
Might is the very best time for
catching snakes, for it is then that the
serpent tribe uncoil themselves and
glide about the swamp in perfect free
dom. Obviously this sort of thing is
not without danger, and after one trial
of il. the snake hunter usually prefers
daylight In the moonlight a silver
haze floats above the swamp, and it
lies like a silvery sea. Within it, the
pines are ghosts whose long boards
sweep the pools, diamond-backe rat
tiers rear their ugly heads, racers, moe
casins and strange pink water snakes
glide noiselessly, and alligators keep
up their loud uncanny believing and
make the air heavy with their musky
odor.
"In daylight the hunter rides in
mounted on mule usually and clad
in an armor of heavy brown duck. high
top boots, and stout, flexible gloves.
His weapons are a bamboo stick with
n running moose of fine copper wire at
the end, and second cane furnished
with a wire net He always carries a
revolver, too, if he is wise.
Across the mules back is balanced
n short cane stick, and from each end
of the stick bangles a good-sized cotton
bag. These bags are for the snakes.
The mule sagaciously picks his way
through the swamp along deer paths
which wind in and out, where single
misstep would often tumble him and
his rider into a pool swarming with
alligators and water snakes.
"a snake stalker, of course, attempts
to take only the more valuable and
strange species of serpents. When he
catches the gleam of the right sort
of a coat through the rushes, or spies
fine specimen dangling from a limb
over his head, he halts and goes into
action with his copper-wire moose and
bamboo stick. If he can, he slips the
moose over the snakes neck and draws
it taut. Then he gets the thrashing,
splitting reptile 'twixt thumb and fore
finger around the neck and drops him
into the cotton bag. Invariably. in
crisis the hunter throws away copper
wires and seizes a snake with his
hands, graspng him we'll toward the
head, so that he cannot twist around
and thrust his fangs into his hands.
"a rattlesnake is fairly easy TO cap
ture. because he is consummately
brave. never runs from an enemy, and
his warning rattle is unmistakable.
skirt the borders of palmetto thicket
any day and watch the wavering shad-
ows of the foliage on the ground. Pres
emily these shadows, if you watch
sharply, seem to dart ahead in a
straight line, with brassy whirr COM
ing from somewhere. The darting line
is a diamond-backed rattler, whose
curiously marked skin is in exact i'm
itation of the palmetto shade. The
diamond-backed is the most deadly of
his tribe. In the west the varieties of
rattlers there found inhabit barren
rocky places and the tall grasses of
the prairies. Just now the rattlesnake
is hunted mercilessly, for he is valua-
bic to the medicine man for his toxines
and to the naturalist because out of
eleven species in the United States,
the habits and looks Of not more than
| five are we'll known"
Continuing, Mr.. Ditmars said that
some snakes are good actors, at least
some snakes which he met in South
Carolina. One of those captured was
hog-nose snake. 1t was captured
near a cottonfeld, and it az once at
tempted to deceive its captor by pre-
| tending it was dead. Then, il undis-
turbed, it would show how live snake
acted when he was not trying to fool
anybody. In playing dead the snake
actually rolled over on its back and re-
turned to that position even If dis
turbed and placed on its sides or belly
| Mr.. Ditmars told number Of colored
men near where it was captured that
he would show them what wonderful
control he had over snakes. He would
first make several passes with his
| hands over the snake and it would roll
| on its back dead. Then he directed
the spectators to walk away some dis
| tance from the snake and he would
then collect vitality out of the air fol
| the snake and the snake would come
| booI. 20 l;fo IVhro tha snake saw