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"The devil," said George Whitefield, "is fond of fishing in muddy waters" hence it is, I suppose, that that grand demagogue has always been so fond of war that sunshine and basking time of rogues, which calls them out, thick as May-day sun calls out the rattle-snakes from their stony crannies.
A clear black lustre characterizes the eye of this animal, and is said to produce so powerful an effect on birds and smaller animals, as to deprive them of the power of escaping. This snake had eight rattles, so that he must have been at least eleven years old. I understood afterwards that there was a rattle-snakes' den in the neighbourhood.
There were, in the lowlands, the massasaugas; short, sluggish rattle-snakes, venomous but cowardly, and, finally, there were the black-snakes ranging everywhere, for no respecter of locality is bascanion constrictor when in pursuit of prey.
Grady sent an appraising eye about the room and proceeded drily, "All present or accounted for, it seems and Good Lord, how they love us! It's really touching they're just like trained rattle-snakes." "Can't say I blame 'em much," Farquaharson stifled a yawn. "Dress Rehearsal until two this morning followed by a call for line rehearsal again at eleven.
Wild rabbits and a species of hare are also common. Indeed a man can travel for days in the Rocky Mountains and never hear the musical notes of a bird. In these mountains, rattle-snakes are only found in the valleys, where it is warm. In the summer, the deer and elk live in the mountains; but, when cold weather sets in, they are driven out of them by the deep snows.
Upsets were therefore only the occasion for a hearty laugh; for it took but a few minutes to right the canoe, bale it out, and proceed on their way. Occasionally they had unpleasant visitors at their camp, and altogether they killed ten or twelve rattle-snakes. In some of the valleys they found the remains of the dwellings of a people far anterior to the present Indian races.
Even to this day I shudder at the thought, when I think how Robinson used to fly at me, swearing, foaming, and seeming to think there was no weapon too large or too heavy to strike me with. He and I were at one time logging with a yoke of oxen, which it was my business to drive. At that time rattle-snakes were numerous, and a great terror to the inhabitants.
"This is what they call the sacred soil!" observed Harris. "Just the thing, I should say, to breed rattle-snakes and rebels." "I swan to man!" chimed in Tucket's voice from a distance, for his long legs had given him an advantage in the general race, "there ain't no shore after ye get to't. It's nothin' but salt ma'sh, all trod to pudd'n' by the fellers that have been in ahead of us.
He jerked his head at some walled-up caves in the bluff not far across the creek and Old Bunk scowled reproachfully. "Oh, nobody," he said, "except the rattle-snakes and pack-rats. Why don't you come up to the house?" "I don't need to go to your house," returned Big Boy defiantly. "I've got money to buy what I need." "Yes, but come up anyway and meet my wife and daughter.
You'd have had no more chance here than a naked nigger in a swamp-full of alligators." "You seem to have hit it off," the other objected. "This is as fine a house as I was ever in." "With me it's different," Thorpe replied, carelessly. "I have the talent for money-making. I'm a man in armour. The 'gators can't bite me, nor yet the rattle-snakes."
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