The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-06-01
THE GREATEST SCARE 1 EVER GOT.
BY e. R. o'RErLLY.

By 9. R. o'REILLY.
Although ! have hunted for and
caught the most venomous of snakes,
and always kept a collection of them
living in my house, yet under certain
circumstances I fear them as much as
anyone else.
Of all the snakes of Florida, that
which most claimed my attention
when l arrived there was the great
diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus ada
manteus), that most dangerous of all
the living creatures that ever inhabi
ted the wild places of the South.
Fortunately these great vipers are
not plentiful. One may live two or
three years in the widest part of the
country and never see one yet they
may be encountered anywhere.
Throughout most of my sojourn in
Florida I have lived or campcd in the
woods, that the subjects of my study
might be around me.
One morning, as I was getting ready
to set out from my woodland retreat
for a ramble along the waterside, I
saw three boys come running toward
the house. One of them had shot
gun, and dog galloped along before
them. Some fifty yards off they
halted, and the painting leader called,
"Do you want a big rattlesnake?
We've found one, and you can catch
him easily. He's coiled up in hol-
low tree"
Where is he?"
"Oh, half a mile off, up there in
the woods"
Ibid he rattle?"
mo. he didn' rattle. He'sasleep."
"Oho!" thought 1. cts some
harmless pin-snake or large king
snake" for people often mistake
these big mottle reptiles for rattle
snakes. The chances are that this
one, if he was a rattlesnake, would
have ratified as soon as he was dis
covered by three fdgety boys and
frisky dog.
Believing, therefore, that it would
prove to be some large, harmless
snake that I might possibly want to
add to my collection, I seized my six
foot snake stick and set out at once
with the boys. I made no other prepa
ration whatever. l did not even put
on leggins.
In few minutes we were close to
a thicket of palmetto and sweet myr
tie. I'm there he is, said the boys,
pointing to the thicket and just as
they spoke I saw, marked across
mole-heap by the path, the broad,
smooth trail of rattlesnake. Itwas
nearly four inches in width.
Leaving the foot path and going
over toward the thicket, I saw the
same mark on two other mole-heaps.
From this I judged that most proba-
bly, the boys were right, and that they
had really seen a rattlesnake and a
large one.
Before entering among the bushes
the boys called up the dog. and held
him in leash lest he should run up on
the snake and be killed, as are many
dogs in Florida every year.
"You go in first" said one of the
boys. we'll follow and show you
where be is"
"Give me that gun, then," said I
for it was dangerous enough to have
one or more rattlesnakes before me,
without also having behind me gun
in the hands of nervous boy. Of
the two the rattlesnake was the lesser
risk.
We came to an open space where
tree had fallen. 1t was an oak laid
low by storm. Its branches were
now leahess and rotten, and the trunk
lay across pine stump, which held
it up some three feet above the ground.
Near by was the old oak stump from
which it had broken off, with good
sized hole rotted into its side. This
opening was down at the ground and
at its lower part not large but at the
top it was wide.
"He is in that stump" said the
leading boy. 'If you go over and
look down through the hole in the
top you can see him"
Telling the boys to stay where they
were, and watching every step I took,
lest might accidentally put my foot
on another rattlesnake-because there
are often two where only one is seen.
I went over to the oak stump and
peeped down into its interior.
"Why, ,there'sno rattlesnake here"
said I.
"Well, he must be there" said one
of the boys, because we never both
cred him; and he was asleep and
didn't rattle. And we all looked in
at him. Didn't we, Tom 7"
"Come and look for yourselves" I
said, land you'll see he's not here
now."
So they all trooped over to my side
and peeped down into the hole in the
stump, and were much disappointed
to find that he was not in it.
As the sun was shining into the hole
at the top, I dropped down on my
knees to look through the lower orr
fee, so as to be sure whether rattle
snake had really lain there or not. A
momentary glance convinced me that
the boys were telling the truth; for
there on the soft, black mold at the
bottom was the imprint of his body.
Even in the entrance the soil was
freshly rubbed where he had passed,
going in and coming out again.
"All right" 1 said, jumping up.
"He was there, sure enough; and he
ie NOT far off noW.o