A FIGHT WITH A RATTLESNAKE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2671, 24 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

A FIGHT WITH A RATTLESNAKE.

A eoi'tributor to A I, a- popular maea- | nine, relates the following story :—ln company with a half breed, who combined tho vocation 3of woodman and hunter, I stumbled suddenly on a large specimen of the Crntr/lii.t mutiia slowly winding its way among the leafy debris of the forest. For some time it was difficult to discern the scaly folds of the snake • h rough fie brown mass of decaying foliage, but having reached a clear spot, the reptile coiled round a low stump and prepared for notion. About a yard of the body next the head was contracted into numerous sharp curves not unlike a corkscrew, while the yellow eye.s gle.imwith baleful light. There was little fascination about these orbs, and no mistaking the malignant intentions of their ower. A stick brought within reach of the mortal coil was struck almost with the rapidity of lighning, no matter how swiftly withdrawn. This was effected by the instantaneous straightening of the short curves into which this portion of the, body had been contracted. Even the wily mongoose would have needed all his marvellous agility to avoid the deadly stroke, if once within range. The reach was about a yard, and the assault was delivered horizontally some six inches from tho ground, directly towards the assailant. The hunter, who had hitherto kept at a respectful distance, as he alleged the snake could spring, was eventually persmded to approach sufficiently near enough to strike it with a 10 foot pole. At the first blow the heavy coils relaxed from the stamp, and the creature appeared dead or stunned. The writer at once grasped the neck about two inches from the head, and raised the reptije partly from the ground to examine it,' As though galvanised into life by the touch, the crotufin seemed at once to recover its energies, and quickly made a couple of turns round the thigh and right arm of its would-be captor. The constructing power exercised was such that the hand grasping the neck soon began to lose power, and the writer realised the. awkward predicament into which his temerity had led him. Little could be done with the free left hand, while the "scaly terror" began slowly to withdraw its head from tint relaxing grasp of the right. For some seconds tho trembling woodman appeared deaf to entreaty, and could not be persuaded to apply a noose of liana to the snake's neck. The largest serpents become paralysed when properly noosed, and are readily dragged along the ground helpless as a log, .lust as the snake's head seemed about to ooze through the numbed fingers, the ha'f breed screwed up his courage sufficiently to apply the liana, as directed, with the result that the brute at once relaxed its coils, and was dragged down to a neighbouring stream, hung up, and skinned. Iγ, measured S feet 5 inches, and was about a< thick in the largest part of the body as the calf of a man's leg. The fangs, when carefully extracted, measured an inch and a quarter in length, and were hollow to within a short distance of I lie point, where, on tho inner side, lay tho orifice through which tho poison was ejected by the action of the base of tho fang on the poison bag.