Smyrna times., 1931-03-18
JOHN DICK WRITES LETTER
Son of Mr.. and Mrs. e. r. Dick
Near Smyrna, Tells of An Inter
esting Jaunt in MOhave Desert

John j. DICK, son OF MI. anu MIS-
E. R. Dick, owner Of the farm
known as the Lower Farm" be
tween Smyrna and Brenford, who
attended school at Smyrna High
School and Delaware College, Uni
versity of Delaware, is now on the
Mohave Desert, about 25 miles
from Kramer, San Bernardlno
County, California, as foreman of
the Crystallizing plant of the West
ern Borax Company, Ltd. Since
going to this camp in the desert he
has been writing some interesting
letters of his experiences. On Sun
day, March 8th, all alone, and arm
ed to protect himself, he took a
jaunt in the hills about six miles
back from the mines. His walk
took him over sand dunes thru
cactus growths, over crumbling
bolders where lizards, scorpions,
rattle snakes and coyotes abound
and vultures hover near to pounce
upon their prey. He says that
lone of the most interesting things
he saw was a fight to the death be-
tween a road-runner, which is a
beautiful snake-eating bird, and a
rattler. I was standing on a
boulder drinking in the beauty of
the Vastness of the desert, and try
ing to think of anything as peace
full as the scenery around me, when
I saw a large rattler come out of
some clunp of sage-brush and
stretch himself out in the sun. He
had been there about five minutes,
summing himself on all sides very
much like you would fry an egg,
turning himself over and over and
being as lazy as the rest of the
afternoon. Suddenly he drew him
self into a coil, and poised himself
for a spring, when I saw what
caused him to get on the alert. A
multi-hued, Iong-legged, agile bird
was running in his direction. When
he saw the snake, he stopped and
to the waiting snake and halted
about five feet directly in front Of
him. The whole atmosphere seem
ed to be dense in anticipation of a
battle. The bird made noises very
much ike q person with the asth-
ma and seemed to get very excited.
ruffling his plumage and dancing
around in front of the waiting
snake. When a rattler is coiled he
can strike three-fourths of his
length in front Of himself, and
when he has struck, he is helpless
until he can coil again. The road
runner seemed to know this, and
teased the snake until he struck
several times; the bird stepping
aside just in time. One time the
rattler re-coiled with mouth-full
of feathers and / thought the fight
had come to an end, but ] was mis-
taken. The next time the reptile
struck and was his full length on
the ground slowly going back to
the protective coil when the road
runner took advantage of the
chance and jumped on the back of
his enemy and started to dig in
his neck with all the pent up fury
of a demon. That was the end of
the battle. The bird had struck a
nerve in the snake that paraliZed
him. After the bird was sure the
snake was dead he acted like the
victor of a battle well won. He
strutted and cackled around in
grand style until he thought it was
time to eat the well-earned meal.
Seemed TO Enjoy a Snake Meal
He seemed to enjoy it, but I'm
sure 1 wouldn't have. That is the
secret of the desert-the survival
of the fittest. Coming to natur-
al gorge that had been made dur
ing the ages, had the feeling that
l was the first white man that had
ever set foot on that ground. There
were no traces of civilization. It
gives one an awed feeling to be all
alone in a place where one feels he
is alone in the whole desert, and
that there are none he can call
upon in case of need. To be able
to see measureless miles in any di-
rection without seeing the result
of civilization in any direction
Here were stately Joshua trees, a
giant cactus, and vast stretches of
rock and sand, inhabited by taran-
tula spiders which measure five
inches in diameter across the body
to which are attached hairy ten
inch legs Gila monsters, poison
Gus lizards which are eighteen
inches long, lie in the sand waiting
for some choice morsels. Now and
then a willy scorpion with his
death-dealing tail poised to end the
existence of some juicy bug, or to
insure that he remains unmolested
Horned Toads and Yellow Snakes
Ugly horned toads waddle in
and out of the brush ever on the
alert to dart their agile tongues al
a fly that happens to be perched
on a branch, while lightning-like