The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-08-19
RATTLERS STILL ABOUT.
Many in Mountains Few Miles From
New York City Hall.

One READS IN Kansas papers that
they are killing off the rattlesnakes
out there, because there isn't much
use in keeping them alive any long
err says the Boston Transcript The
rattlesnakes themselves may have a
different idea of the matter. It is
one thing to 'kill off the rattle
snakes and another to get them kill
ed off. Massachusetts has not killed
off all Of hers, after 800 years. A
few years ago the Nomad read in a
printed explanatory statement dis
played in the reptile house in the
Bronx Park Biological Garden, New
York City, that mo rattlesnakes are
now found within thirty miles of
New York city," Shortly afterward
the Nomad presented the custodian
with the rattles of a large rattle
snake which had just been killed on
the Palisades, not three miles from
the city limits of New York. There
is no place in the whole world where
rattlesnakes are more abundant than
they are in the Ramapo Mountains,
near Sufferin, n. Y, about twenty
five miles from the New York city
hail. And though for many years
they have been regularly and profess
sionally haunted hereto be deprived
of their fangs and exhibited in cages
or to be killed for their skins or their
oil-they do not seem to diminish in
number among the hot rocks on the
summit of the High Turne or along
the slopes of the Ramapos or the
Catskills.
The rattlesnake, of course, disap-
pears in a region which has become
distinctly farming country. He
needs peculiar conditions for his de-
velopment. He needs hot sun in sum-
mer, and the protective cover of dry
leaves, and he likes the crevices OF
the rocks in which to rear his brood.
AS he.does not run away from attack,
he cannot survive in frequented fields.
But in the woods and hills, or the
great stick, without the slightest
move on wastes where mems foot
steps are few and far between, he
| increases and multipiies. And while
cur northern ratt er must have hot
SUI in summer. he nevertheless sur"
wives in climates where the tempera-
ture falls far below zero in winter.
The rattlesnake is common en- tEe
shore of Georgian Fay in Ontario.
There are still a good many places in
| New England where one needs 10
look out for him-needs to iook out,
that is all, for the rattler, in spite ~
centuries of persecution, remains the
perfect gentleman. He does not at
tack unless threatened; he will not
run away; and he gives full warning
before he strikes. He is generally
not averse to the unharming approach
of humans, often seeming to regard
| the intruder with merely curious In
terest. The Nomad has seen curled-
I'D rattler remain perfectly notion
less for long time, while fool ter
rier barked at him not foot away,
not deeming it worth it's while to
strike the dog. The rattler is the
most dignifed of living creatures.
But it is. and will always remain,
the part OF wisdom not to tread on
him. And if one is in rattlesnake
country, it is wise precautlon 10
carry long stick and keep good
watch on the path ahead.
It is an odd circumstance about a
rattler's fangs that they will grow
again if cut out. The snake hunters
who take the rattlers alive and sell
them for exhibition purposes; follow
this method in their capture; they
stun the snake with blow, put
forked stick over him and then seize
him around the neck with the LETT
hand. This forces the rattler's mouth
open, exposing his great fangs' ana
with his knife, the hunter now digs
out the fang and put the snake in
bag where he soon completely re-
wives. but is now harmless. This IS
called trimming" the snake.
| =------ =, - +ho nr;vato