Throughout North America there are no small number and variety of
venomous snakes. The rattlesnakes are perhaps the most numerous,
frequenting all parts of the country, though they generally keep to the
uninhabited portions. They are found on the northern shores of Lake
Superior--though the ground is covered for several months in the year
with snow--and often appear in the regions to the west, in the same
latitude, up to the Rocky Mountains. They would render some districts
uninhabitable, were it not for the signal-giving rattles with which they
are armed. Even quadrupeds are alarmed at the sound, and endeavour to
make their escape from them; and horses, it is said, lately arrived from
Europe, show the same dread of these deadly serpents as do those born in
the country, so that nothing will induce them to pass within striking
distance of the creatures.
The wanderer through the forest starts back with dismay as he comes
suddenly upon one of these venomous reptiles, and hears its ominous
rattle when too near to escape. He must muster all his nerve, and
strike it with his stick as it springs; for a wound from its fangs will,
as he knows, bring certain death, far-away from human aid.
The rattlesnake, like others of its tribe in cold regions, hibernates in
winter; and as the autumn comes on, seeks some convenient crevice in
which to pass the cold season--generally in the neighbourhood of marshy
ground, where it can cover itself up in the masses of a peculiar species
of moss growing in such situations. The reptiles are here, during the
winter, frequently hunted out and destroyed. At that time, too, their
bite is much less dangerous than in the summer--the amount of venom
appearing to decrease with the increase of cold.