A LIVELY ENCOUNTER WITH BLACK SNAKES.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 386, 26 August 1884, Page 5

A LIVELY ENCOUNTER WITH BLACK SNAKES.

ty-i(lsletotfn (N. V.) corresponaieni oi {he 'New York Times' Writla 32E* shqrTHitoe ago, J. H.Pitts, a prominent citizen of Monticillo (as was printed in the ' Times ' at that time)' -was driving along acrossrqad r pear j tßridge villa, and alighted from his;,wdggon to kill a large black ■snake that 1 he saw lying by the roads\ip. „ He, attacked it with his Whip, and ijhresented' the assault so vigorously that^| J itt,s J wa,B obliged to take to hisiieelsi The snake, pursuedhim for. nearly a quarter of a mile, when he sought to' escape ifc by clambering to the top, . of a large rock. The, snake followed > hira, . but he succeeded in striking ; it a blow with his whip that disabled the snake, when he dispatched it. Since then other black snakes of enormous size have been seen in thio same spot, and one day last week, as Thomas JMeil, Justice ; of the I^eace at Bridgevjlie : l was walking along the road, he saw four, of the reptiles sunning themselves en a roW. He carried a heavy walking stick, and believing that he could kill the snakes without difficulty approached, them for that purpose, One of the serpents crawled away in the' hughes, -but' the Others prepared to defend themselves. Squire Neil, killed one of tkein by a lucky blow, but before 'he could strike 4th. er of the 'others dne ? of them sprang at him, instantly coiled itself about one of his legs, and moved rapidly upward to. -ward his body. The remaining snake theft, .crawled sway up the road an<^ stoppe^ g. |ibprt distance off, as if to watch tujareeitfti Q$ the fight. The brie that had attacked Neii his waist before, he could stay its moyer menfc), and then, by a lucky grasp, he qaughjt .U P^jth. his left hand around the neck, -He^^ll bis strength to choking the ; serpent, ,ans succeeded in compelling JLt to lo.oaen fig ftold^ Neil then threw it 1 to the ground and Btruck it, deaUng a W ow tnat eyidejitly stunned it. He had JU> tjme follow uphi^ advantage for the anake tkst &&$■ retreated up the road came gliding sjwjftlv back to the aid of its com}p^|oS^¥%S^ire met it halfway ai^ [t eCam^e toward him, with its

head raised in the air, he struck it with his cane and stretched it full length and apparently lifeless in the road. The Squire now thought the battle over, but what was his surprise to see another snake, probably tho one that had crawled away, at. the, hegin. ning of the attack, coming toward him from the bushes He aimed a blow at this one, but it avoided it, r.ud, with a movement ho quick that Neil had no time to strike another blow, -wrapped itself around his arm and glided tof ward his neck. In desperation Neil dropped his stick and made a clutch' at the; . snake, and caught it around the. body, just below the bead. As in the case of the* one that had coiled about hiss leg, he forced this one to uncoil itself by choking it with all his might. fctill holding it by the neck;, he picked up his cane and pounded it on the h .iv until it was dead. He then tii' mi is attention to the other two, an ' •«••!« ; urprised to see that they had both recovered consciousness, and were crawling slowly away. He followed them and killed them both. Three of the snakes were of the blueracer species and were each six-feet long. The fourth one, which was the one he killed first, was a common black snake, four feet long. The sam 2 day a man named Taylor lulled a blueracer near German town that was seven feet long — the largest ever known in this region.