_RATTLESNAKE HISTORY._
FROM the peculiar rattling appendage, with which this snake is armed,
it has excited the notice of European explorers since the very first
settlement of the American Continent. Whenever a traveller attempted
any printed account of the New World and its products, mention was made
of this ‘viper with the bell.’
By and by, in 1762, a live specimen was brought to England, where it
arrested the attention of the members of the Royal Society and the
scientific ‘Chirugions’ of the day.
From this time the rattlesnake began to be honoured with a literature
of its own—one which equals if not exceeds in interest that of any
other ophidian history handed down to us; for Cleopatra’s asp has its
literature, and the _Cobra capella_, and M’Leod’s boa, and some few
other distinguished ophidians, but none so voluminous and inexhaustible
as the American _Crotalus_ with its sonorous tail.
And despite the attention of naturalists for above two hundred years,
it is not yet done with. First its rattle, then its fangs, next its
maternal affection and the security offered to its young in ‘its own
bosom,’ then its ‘pit,’ and again its rattle—each and all in turn
have continued to occupy the pen of zoologists as, with the advance of
science, fresh light has been thrown upon ophiology.
American naturalists have continually something new to tell us about
the _Crotalus_, and not even yet have they decided among themselves of
what precise use that remarkable rattle is, either to its owner or its
auditors.
The various theories regarding its construction, mode of growth, its
age and supposed uses, will occupy the second part of the present
subject; other rattlesnake features will come in their places, but
first an outline of what the early English writers had to say about it
will not be devoid of interest.
Natural history as a science was then in its infancy. The Royal Society
of England had as yet no existence; snakes were ‘insects,’ because they
lay eggs; insects were ‘serpents,’ because they creep; and the majority
of all such ‘creeping things’ were ‘venomous,’ of course.
In those early days of science there was little or no recognition of
species, two, or at most three, different kinds of rattlesnakes being
named. The distinguishing rattle seemed enough to separate them from
all other snakes: they were ‘the vipers with the bell,’ or ‘the vipers
with the sounding tail.’ ‘Vipers’ they were at once decided to be,
conformably with the old idea that vipers, in distinction to every
other kind of snake, produced their young alive. In this respect those
early observers were correct; and from their general characteristics
they are still _vipers_ in the eyes of science: that is, they belong
to the sub-order _Viperina_, though their dentition more than any other
feature separates them from the rest, and we know now that several
non-venomous snakes produce live young as well as the vipers.
In appearance the rattlesnake is so well known that a minute
description of it is uncalled for. Throughout the whole genera of the
_Crotalidæ_ the viperine character is seen in the broad, angular,
flattish head; the thinner neck, distinct between it and the thicker
body; a short, tapering tail, and a generally repulsive appearance with
an evil expression about it, as if no further warning were required to
announce its deadly qualities.
Nevertheless, many of the rattlesnakes possess an undeniably handsome
exterior. Their colours are for the most part dark and rich, relieved
with lighter markings and velvety black; often wearing a brilliant
prismatic hue, which still further enriches their tints. And then the
rattle at once announces the name of its owner.
It is not easy to decide on the writer or traveller from whom we
get the first mention of the rattlesnake, which has an extensive
geographical range on both the American continents. It was undoubtedly
some South American explorer early in the sixteenth century, and long
before any settlement in the New World had been made by the English.
In a rare old book, the first edition of which was published in London,
1614, viz. ‘_Samvel Purchas. His Pilgrimage in all Ages; being an
account of all the Places discovered since the Creation of the World_,’
we hear of many Spanish and Portuguese authors who are but little known
in England, and from each and all of whom the indefatigable ‘Pilgrim’
has culled information. Indeed, the book is a careful compilation
from all the previous writers of any worth, though those only who
mentioned the Brazilian serpents need be here introduced to the reader.
These, in describing some unchanging peculiarities, and in giving us
the vernacular names then common, have been of much use in assisting
subsequent writers to identify certain species.
Hakluyt, Hernandez, Master Anthony Kniuet, and many others are quoted
by Purchas, but of them all, ‘No man hath written so absolute a
Discourse of Brazil as was taken from a Portugall Frier and sold to
Master Hakluit,’ he tells us; giving at the same time a history of the
persecution and imprisonment of this unfortunate friar, whose unusual
intelligence seems to have rendered him an object of suspicion. Thus do
we who come after benefit by the misfortunes of our predecessors, and
thus has the stolen ‘Discourse’ of the sixteenth century been turned to
account for our edification in the nineteenth.
In the Portuguese friar’s description of animals, it is not difficult
to separate the true snakes from the ‘Serpentes with foure Legges and
a Taile,’ or to identify the rattlesnakes among them. Says the writer,
‘The Boycininga is a Snake called of the Bell: it is of a great Poison,
but it maketh such a Noise with a Bell it hath in its Tayle that it
catcheth very few: though it be so swift that they call it the flying
Snake. His Length is twelve or thirteen Spannes long. There is another
_Boycininpeba_. This also hath a Bell, but smaller. It is blacke and
very venomous.’
These two may be _Crotalus horridus_ and _Crotalus durissus_, the two
commonest; or they may be only one species of a different size, age,
and colouring—a confusion which frequently occurs with even more
recent and more scientific worthies than the good ‘Pilgrim’ Purchas. In
a later edition he says: ‘Other Serpents there are that carrie upon the
Tippe of their Tayle a certaine little roundelle, like a Bell, which
ringeth as they goe.’
Marcgrave, in his _Travels in Brazil_, 1648, further helps us to label
the right snake with the long vernaculars by figuring a rattlesnake
and calling it by the same name, only with an additional syllable,
_Boicinininga_, _quem Cascavel_, the latter euphonious Spanish word,
for a little round bell, having widely obtained ever since.
As soon as the first English colony was settled in North America, the
rattlesnake again comes upon the stage. Captain John Smith, whom we may
call the founder of Virginia (since it was owing to his good judgment,
endurance, and intelligence that the colony did not share the fate of
Sir W. Raleigh’s adventurers), tells us of the ornaments worn by the
Indians, and the favour in which certain _Rattells_ were held by them
as amulets. In his _Generall Historie of Virginia_, 1632, Captain Smith
describes their barbarous adornments,—birds’ claws, serpent skins,
feathers with a ‘rattell’ tied on to them, which ‘Rattells they take
from the Taile of a Snake,’ and regard with superstitious veneration.
With the spirit of enterprise which marked that era, and the discovery
of new countries and strange creatures, ‘Natural History’ began to be a
recognised science in Europe. Aldrovanus and Gesner had produced their
ponderous tomes, and the authors quoted by Purchas were eagerly read
by Ingenious Chirugions, who in England appear to have taken the lead
in science; while at Florence an assembly of ‘Knowing Physicians’ were
experimentalizing with all the Vipers procurable in Southern Europe,
holding council as to the source of their ‘Mischiefs’ and specific
‘Remedies for their Bitings,’ etc., with just such tests with the
‘Master Teeth’ of both living and dead vipers as have of late again
occupied the attention of living scientists. In 1660 the learned Redi
of Florence published his book on Vipers, and soon after M. Moyse
Charas, a Frenchman, produced a work which would not be a bad textbook
even now.
And for the Scientific World what greater stimulus could arise than
the foundation of the ROYAL SOCIETY by Charles II., and the channel
for ventilating discoveries and inventions which their published
_Transactions_ afforded? Very early in these do we find that viper
poison was engaging professional attention, and soon did communications
appear from those ‘knowing physicians’ at Florence. A correspondence
sprang up between M.D.’s of England, France, and Italy; and the
details of their experiments proved very inciting to the members of
the Royal Society of London, who with the limited subjects at their
disposal—virtually only our own little English viper—also set
themselves to work to analyze the ‘Poyson Bag.’
One enthusiast, Mr. Platt, addressing the Royal Society from Florence,
with an account of some of the experiments then going on, made mention
of the M. Charas who had written such an important work, and ended by
hoping to animate the _virtuosi_ here to ‘do something that may be not
unworthy your knowlege.’[77]
That the work of M. Moyse Charas was translated into English the
following year, proves that the English _virtuosi_ had really become
‘animated’ in the looked-for direction.[78]
In the preface of his book we read: ‘If Reflexion be made on the many
Wonders that are found in the Body of this Animal’ (the viper), ‘it
will be easily granted that it cannot be inquir’d into with too much
Exactness: and that it is not a Work that can be finish’t at one or two
Sittings.’
This little digression from the rattlesnake is not without its object;
for from this correspondence through the _Philosophical Transactions_
we may date the birth of ophiological science in England; and the
reader will be able to place himself on that standpoint in order to
reciprocate the kind of interest with which such an entirely strange
and as yet unknown serpent as a rattlesnake was received a short time
afterwards.
In vol. x. 1676, there is ‘An Account of Virginia, its Situation,
Temperature,’ etc., communicated by Mr. Thomas Glover, ‘an ingenious
Chirugion that hath lived some years in the Country.’
This gentleman tells us of the climate and productions of the new
colony, not omitting those of the animal and vegetable kingdoms;
among the various strange creatures which he describes in the crude
language of the time are five or six sorts of snakes, amongst which
‘the Rattlesnake is the most remarkable, being about the bigness of a
Man’s Legg, and for the most part a yard and a half long. He hath a
Rattle at the End of his Tail, wherewith he maketh a Noise when any one
approacheth nigh him: which seemeth to be a peculiar Providence of God
to warn People to avoid the Danger; for this Creature is so venomous
that the Bite of it is of most dangerous Consequence, unless they make
use of the proper Antidote, of which I shall take occasion to speak
somewhat hereafter.’
Such accounts, coupled with the interest awakened in the members of
the Royal Society by the Florentine experimentalists, caused the first
arrival of a rattlesnake in England to be a grand era in ophiological
annals; and with its eventful appearance began its scientific history.
The published records of the _Philosophical Transactions_ again
perpetuate the impressions it created, and also many collateral points
of interest.
A paper entitled _Vipera Caudisona Americana; or, The Anatomy of a
Rattle-Snake_, was read by Dr. Edward Tyson, of the Royal Medical
College of London, in 1683; who dissected one at the repository of the
Royal Society in Jan. 1682. (The above scientific name is erroneously
attributed to Laurenti, 1768.)
That nothing of much value to science was previously known about
the reptile we gather from Dr. Tyson’s introductory words. ‘It were
mightily to be wisht that we had the most compleat account of so
_Curious_ an _Animal_. This which we _Dissected_ was sent to Mr. Henry
Loades, a merchant in London, from Virginia, who was pleased not only
to gratify the _Curiosity_ of the Royal Society, in showing it them
alive, but likewise gave it them when dead.’
Thus did Mr. Loades unconsciously immortalize himself in the history
of rattlesnakes. Merchants in those days were not F.Z.S.’s; and it is
probable that he thought of nothing beyond ingratiating himself with
the members of a learned Society by presenting them with a ‘serpente’
dead, whose ‘Bell’ had excited their curiosity when living; and he
little dreamed that the origin and use of this strange _bell_ would not
be determined two hundred years afterwards.
Says Dr. Tyson: ‘I find the inward parts so conformable to those of a
Viper that I have taken the liberty of placing it in that Classe and
(since it has not that I know of any Latine Name) of giving it that of
_Vipera Caudisona_: for as I am informed by Merchants ‘tis Viviparous,
and the Epithet sufficiently differences it from those that have no
Rattle.’
This scholarly anatomist had evidently devoted much careful labour to
the task of hunting up all the literature that could throw any light on
his much-prized specimen. He had no doubt been one of those ‘animated’
by the Florentine savants, and had made himself acquainted with all
the viperine characters. He had doubtless read all that had already
appeared in the _Philosophical Transactions_, and also the narratives
of such _voyageurs_ as Hakluyt, Hernandez, Piso, and Marcgravius.
Among the useful results of his researches he is able to give us many,
we may say most, of its vernaculars in the countries of the New World
settled by Europeans up to that date; and as in subsequent books of
travel we hear of the rattlesnake frequently under these vernaculars,
until, as of later years, its ordinary English name has been familiar
to all, we have had a good deal to thank him for, were it only this.
In addition to the authors already named, he gives us Guliemus Piso,
Johnston, Merembergius, and ‘others that have wrot of it, and its
anatomy, under the names of Boigininga or Boiginininga and Boiquira,
which are its Brazile Names. By the Portuguese it is called Casca
vela and Tangador: by the Dutch, Raetel Sclange; by those of Mexico,
Teutlaco-cauehqui or Teuhtlacotl zauhqui, _i.e. Domina Serpentum_: and
from its swift motion on the Rocks like the wind, Hoacoatl.’
Minutely and scientifically was that ‘viper with the sounding tail’
dissected and studied out by Dr. Tyson just two hundred years ago; and
the excellent illustrations with which his description was elucidated
were subsequently used in many first-class physiological works.
Not even the ‘pit’ escaped the notice of that nice anatomist,—the
‘nasal fosse,’ or ‘sort of second nostril,’ as it was for a long while
called,—and its use conjectured, and which has given to a very large
group of venomous serpents the name of ‘pit vipers,’ the peculiar
orifice not being confined to the American _Crotalus_ alone (see chap.
xxi.).
‘Between the nostrils and eyes are two other orifices which at first
I took to be Ears,’ he tells us, speaking of this ‘pit,’ ‘but after
found they only led into a Bone that had a pretty large cavity, but
no perforation.’ He had seen that vipers—the European vipers which
he had previously known—had not these orifices. Then he comments on
the great Provision of Nature in furnishing the strong, smooth ‘belly
scales,’ (see illustration, p. 193), and the ‘very long trachea of 20
inches. _Nature_ is mightily provident in supplying them with _Air_, in
bestowing on them so large a Receptacle for receiving it.’
Tyson quotes from the ‘contests between the noble Italian Redi, and
the Frenchman M. Charas,’ as to the source of the poison in vipers,
and makes discoveries for himself, as for instance the mobility of the
jaw in elevating and depressing the fang, the structure of the teeth,
and various other matters which in this book are discussed in their
several chapters, but which were then for the first time scientifically
described in English by Tyson.
True that a little traditional gossip about the rattle, which he had
gathered from less competent sources, creeps in towards the conclusion
of the paper. While the learned M.D. writes from his own observations
and scientific knowledge, he affords valuable information; and we can
dispense with the hearsay of the day. However, all honour be to Dr.
Tyson of two hundred years ago, who was the first to give us ‘The
Anatomy of the Rattlesnake,’ and its first scientific name.
As the two American continents became more widely known to Europeans,
and Englishmen were seized with a desire to visit the new colonies,
books of travels and descriptions multiplied too rapidly for even a
passing mention in these pages; though wherever the slightest approach
to natural history was included, the rattlesnake figured conspicuously.
Of those works frequently quoted by naturalists, Seba’s _Rerum
Naturalium Thesauri_ in 1735, of four ponderous volumes, containing
text in both Latin and French, and profusely illustrated, must not be
omitted, though about the _Crotalus_ he has not much new to tell us.
He quotes Tyson and others, and explains that the many nearly similar
names are ‘_selon la difference de prononciation des Bresiliens,
qui la nomme aussi Boiquira_;’ and he thinks all these names ‘_ne
désignent qu’une seule et même vipère_.’ To these various titles of
‘one and the same viper,’ we shall refer again in chap. xxiii. To
the list he adds that the English call it ‘rattlesnake;’ the French,
‘_serpent à sonnettes_;’ and Latin authors, _Anguis crotalophorus_
(or the rattle-bearing snake). He also gives us another Mexican name,
‘_Ecacoatl, qui signifie le Vent, parce qu’elle rampe avec une extrème
vitesse sur les rochers_.’
This extreme activity in the rattlesnake is not in accordance with
our alien experience. Still we hear of it from more than one writer
and in widely separated habitats. The Mexican and Brazilian words may
have alluded to the rapidity of motion in striking its prey, and which
in its swiftness can scarcely be followed. Or it is possible that the
reptile which as a captive in our chilling climate is so slow and
sluggish, may, when stimulated by a tropical sun and under peculiar
excitement, occasionally exhibit a vivacity incredible to us who see it
only in menageries. Regarding other species of viperine snakes, we have
sometimes similar evidence; and there is nothing in the structure of
the _Crotalus_ to contradict it.
One more of the unpronounceable Mexican names we must inflict on the
reader, to show how this serpent was distinguished among all others
even in length of title. F. Fernandez, or Hernandez, in his _Animalium
Mexicanum_, p. 63, A.D. 1628, calls it Teuchlacotzauhqui, because it
surpasses all others in ‘_l’horrible bruit de sa sonnette_.’
As may be supposed, anybody who could see this remarkable snake on its
native soil was ready to tell something about it; and from the time
that Dr. Tyson dissected his specimen and made it better known to the
‘Curious,’ many other communications saw light through the pages of
the _Philosophical Transactions_ during the next few years.
In experimenting to discover the source of the ‘mischief,’ one skilful
‘Chyrurgeon’ proved that the gall of vipers is not venomous, only
bitter.
A Mr. John Clayton, in an _Account of the Beasts in Virginia_, 1694,
tells us the rattlesnake’s ‘Tayle is composed of perished Joynts like
a dry Husk. The Old shake and shiver these Rattles with wonderful
Nimbleness; the Snake is a Majestick sort of Creature, and will scarce
meddle with anything unless provoked.’ He also describes the ‘fistulous
Teeth’ and the poison being injected through these ‘into the very mass
of the blood.’ Effective remedies are spoken of, as if not much doubt
of a cure existed. An Indian was bitten in the arm, who ‘clapt a hot
burning coal thereon and singed it stoutly.’
In Italy experiments still went on, and a Mr. C. J. Sprengle wrote to
the Royal Society from Milan (1722), that in a room opened at the top
were sixty vipers from all parts of Italy. ‘Whereupon we catch’d some
mice and threw them in, one at a time, among all that number of vipers;
but not one concerned himself about the mice, only one pregnant viper
who interchanged eyes with the mouse, which took a turn or two, giving
now and then a squeak, and then ran with great swiftness into the chops
of the viper, where it gradually sunk down the gullet.’ And from this
sinister proceeding on the part of the viper, Mr. Sprengle argues a
fact generally borne out in zoological collections ever since, namely,
that venomous snakes in captivity will not eat until they become
reconciled.
And so by degrees these many interesting ophiological facts have been
worked out and established. In 1733, vol. xxxviii., some experiments
made by Sir Hans Sloane are recorded. A dog was made to tread on a
rattlesnake which bit him. In one minute of time the dog was paralytic
in the hinder legs, and was dead in less than three minutes.
Another subject of subsequent interest and even importance was some
observations made by Sir Hans Sloane on the ‘Charms, Inchantments, or
Fascinations of Snakes,’ in reply to communications by Paul Dudley,
Esq., F.R.S., and Col. Beverley, both of whom believed that the
rattlesnake could bring a bird or a squirrel from a tree into their
mouths by the power of their eye.
A word on fascination will come in its place, but as a part of
rattlesnake history Sir Hans Sloane may be quoted here. And yet a
reason so long ago suggested by him, who _thoughtfully_ watched a
snake, seems almost entirely to have escaped notice. He thinks ‘the
whole mystery of charming or enchanting any Creature is simply this.
Small Animals or Birds bitten, the poison allows them time to run a
little way (as perhaps a bird to fly up into a tree), where the snakes
watch them with great earnestness, till they fall down, when the snakes
swallow them.’[79]
Sir Hans Sloane quotes a good deal from the work by Colonel
Beverley,[80] and the observations made by him; particularly one which
the author remarks is a ‘curiosity which he never met with in print,’
viz. the instinct which displays itself so strongly _after death_ in
the rattlesnake. A man chopped off the head and a few inches of the
neck of a rattlesnake, and then on touching the ‘springing teeth with
a stick, the head gave a sudden champ with its mouth,’ thus displaying
the impulse to bite. He noticed the action of the springing teeth ‘when
they are raised, which I take to be only at the will of the snake to do
mischief.’ Strange to tell, many of the above peculiarities have been
described as ‘new to science’ within forty years.
But among those who wrote of our American colonies, Lawson must not
be omitted. Describing the ‘Insects of Carolina,’ viz. alligators,
rattlesnakes, water snakes, swamp snakes, frogs, great loach, lizards,
worms, etc., he tells us what was then new about the subject of this
chapter.
‘The Rattlesnakes are found on all the Main of America that I ever had
any Account of: being so called from the Rattle at the End of their
Tails, which is a Connexion of jointed Coverings of an excrementitious
Matter, betwixt the Substance of a Nail and a Horn, though each Tegment
is very thin. Nature seems to have designed these on purpose to give
Warning of such an approaching Danger as the venomous Bite of these
Snakes is. Some of them grow to a very great Bigness, as six Feet
in Length; their Middle being the Thickness of the Small of a lusty
Man’s Leg. They are of an orange, tawny, and blackish Colour on the
Back, differing (as all Snakes do) in Colour on the Belly; being of an
Ash Colour inclining to Lead. The Male is easily distinguished from
the Female by a black Velvet Spot on his Head; and besides his Head
is smaller-shaped and long. Their Bite is venomous if not speedily
remedied; especially if the Wound be in a Vein, Nerve, Tendon, or
Sinew, when it is very difficult to cure. The Indians are the best
Physicians for the Bite of these, and all other venomous Creatures of
this Country. The Rattle-Snakes are accounted the peaceablest in the
World, for they never attack any One or injure them unless trodden
upon or molested. The most Danger of being bit by these Snakes is for
those that survey Land in Carolina; yet I never heard of any Surveyor
that was killed or hurt by them. I have myself gone over several of
this Sort; yet it pleased God I never came to any Harm. They have the
Power or Art (I know not which to call it) to charm Squirrels, Hares,
Partridges, or any such Thing, in such a Manner that they run directly
into their Mouths. This I have seen,’ and so forth.... ‘Rattle-Snakes
have many small Teeth of which I cannot see they make any Use; for they
swallow every Thing whole; but the Teeth which poison are only four;
two on each side of their Upper-Jaws. These are bent like a Sickle,
and hang loose, as if by a Joint. Towards the setting on of these,
there is in each Tooth a little Hole, wherein you may just get in the
Point of a small Needle. And here it is that the Poison comes out and
follows the Wound made by the Point of their Teeth. They are much more
venomous in the Months of June and July than they are in March, April,
or September. The hotter the Weather the more poisonous. Neither may
we suppose they can renew their Poison as oft as they will; for we
have had a Person bit by one of these who never rightly recovered it,
and very hardly escaped with Life; and a second Person bit in the same
Place by the same Snake and received no more Harm than if bitten with a
Rat. They cast their Skins every Year and commonly abide in the Place
where the old Skin lies. These cast Skins are used for Physick, and
the Rattles are reckoned good to expedite the Birth.’ ... ‘Gall mixed
with Clay and made into Pills are kept for Use and accounted a noble
Remedy.’ ... ‘This Snake has two Nostrils on each Side its Nose. Their
Venom I have Reason to believe effects no Harm any otherwise than when
darted into the Wound by the Serpent’s Teeth.’
This description, being an early and excellent illustration of what has
since been termed ‘Practical Natural History,’ is given at length, and
because Lawson has been a good deal quoted by subsequent writers.
So again is Catesby, who went to Virginia in 1712, staying seven
years ‘to gratify a passionate desire to view animal and vegetable
productions in their native country.’ He was the first to figure and
to describe two distinct species. It is admitted that he did much
for natural history, and his drawings are by far the best that had
as yet appeared. Catesby therefore claims a conspicuous place among
rattlesnake historians.
By this time, 1731, nine or ten of the American colonies had celebrated
their first centenary, and had made considerable advances towards
civilisation. In the parts visited by Catesby a good deal of the old
English refinement marked the character and manners of the people. But
a little domestic incident in the house where he was staying is related
by him, and affords us an insight of a less attractive character in
plantation life.
The largest rattlesnake Catesby ever saw was eight feet long, and
weighed eight or nine pounds. ‘This Monster was gliding into the House
of Col. Blake, and had certainly taken up his Abode there undiscovered,
had not the Domestic Animals alarmed the Family with their repeated
Outcries: the Hogs, Dogs, and Poultry united in their Hatred to him,
showing the greatest Consternation by erecting their Bristles and
Feathers, and showing their Wrath and Indignation surrounded him; but
carefully kept their Distance, while he, regardless of their Threats,
glided slowly along.’
It was not at all an uncommon occurrence for rattlesnakes to come into
houses at that time, nor indeed has it been long since then in secluded
parts.
Catesby himself had a narrow escape once, when he occupied a room on
the ground floor, and a rattlesnake was found snugly coiled in his bed.
Notwithstanding a growing acquaintance with the rattlesnake among the
F.R.S.’s, to the general public it was still almost unknown.
Even in the middle of the eighteenth century an itinerant exhibitor
could say what he pleased about it to a too credulous public. An
extract from an old newspaper suggests an ancestral Barnum joining
hands with a journalist to make a fortune out of one thus exhibited.
Not so much was expected of journalists in those days; but even now,
so far as snakes are concerned, a vast number of errors creep into
newspapers.
‘A BEAUTIFUL RATTLESNAKE ALIVE.
‘This exotic Animal is extremely well worthy the Observation of
the Curious: Its Eyes are of great Lustre, even equal to that of a
Diamond, and its Skin so exquisitely mottled and of such surpassing
Beauty as baffles the Art of the most celebrated Painter: It is about
five Feet long, and so sagacious, that it will rattle whenever the
Keeper commands it: There is not the least cause for Fear, though
it were at Liberty in the Room: but that the Ladies may be under no
Apprehension on that Account, it is kept in a Glass-Case. It is very
Active, and is the first ever shown alive in England.’—From _The
General Advertiser_, LONDON, Sat., Jan. 4th, 1752.
Any ‘sagacity’ displayed in this exhibition was on the part of the
keeper, who had discovered the exceeding timidity of this reptile, and
had observed that it used its rattle whenever alarmed or provoked.
However, the timidity answered very well for obedience, and no doubt
drew many spectators.
A notable feature in the rattlesnake was its fecundity and prevalence.
This we gather from all who in the early days of American history
had anything to tell us of the country and its inhabitants. Whether
the subject of their pen were Topography, Indians, or Productions, a
rattlesnake crept in. Collateral evidence of this kind, given with no
motive for exaggeration, nor even as ‘natural history,’ may therefore
be accredited.
A slaughter of rattlesnakes was as much an annual custom as the
slaughter of hogs. Regularly as a crop of hay came a crop of
rattlesnakes. On account of the oil manufactured from their fat, the
slaughter partook also of a commercial character; but more commonly
it was a war of extinction, like the battles with the Indians.
Usually an annual, frequently a biennial, crusade was undertaken, the
settlers being well acquainted with their habits and retreats. It was
a well-known fact that, towards the close of summer, and on the first
indication of frost, the reptiles returned simultaneously and in vast
numbers to a favourite spot. Not only hundreds but thousands make for
this winter rendezvous year after year.
Catlin, the Indian historian, tells us that near Wilkesbarre, in
Pennsylvania, his birth-place, was a cavern in the mountains called
Rattlesnake Den; and to this cavern the snakes made an annual
pilgrimage, collecting from vast distances, no matter what obstacles
were in their way. Across rivers and lakes, and up mountain sides,
straight to their Den they would go, and in those unapproachable
caverns lie _en masse_ in a torpid state until aroused by the coming
summer, when they would venture forth again and descend into the
valleys.
These were the times for the grand _battues_, one of which, an event of
Catlin’s boyhood, is narrated by him.
One of the first spring days, when the creatures creep out to sun
themselves for only a few hours, retiring again at night, was the time
chosen for the onslaught. The snakes were known to come forth from
Rattlesnake Den on to a certain ledge of rock near their cavern; and a
council of war was held as to the best approach and mode of attack. Ten
years previously a similar war had been waged, when the reptiles had
been almost exterminated; but of late so many accidents had occurred
among the inhabitants through the fast-increasing serpents, that the
farmers agreed to climb to the den and once more reduce their numbers.
The boy Catlin was privileged to be of the party, and he was told
to creep cautiously to an overhanging rock, whence he could see the
reptiles sunning themselves on their ledge below. The rest of the party
stood in readiness, club in hand. At a signal young Catlin fired a
fowling-piece into their midst. There was a knot of them ‘like a huge
mat wound and twisted and interlocked together, with all their heads
like scores of hydras standing up from the mass.’ Into this horrible
cluster he ‘let fly,’ when the party, rushing with their clubs, broke
the spine of hundreds by a single blow to each, while hundreds more
were saving themselves by a quick return to their den.
While counting the five or six hundred slain, and holding another
council of war on the battle-field, a rattle was heard of one which in
the death-struggle had escaped over a ledge instead of into its cave.
With a forked stick a man approached that misguided reptile and held
down its head, while another brave expert seized it by the neck so
close to its head that it could not turn and bite him.
It was a very large snake, and young Catlin, inspired by the sudden
thought, exclaimed, ‘Tie a powder-horn to its tail and fasten a slow
fuse to it, and let it go back into its den.’
‘George, you are the best hunter in the Valley of Ocquago!’ cried the
man who held the snake; and forthwith the plan was agreed upon.
The largest powder-horn in the party was filled to the brim from the
other horns, and tied to the snake’s tail by a string of several feet
long; and to the horn was fixed a slow fuse of about a yard in length,
made of wetted, twisted tow, in which gunpowder was rolled. This
accomplished while the reptile was still firmly held, it was then set
free close to the mouth of its den, the whole party speedily escaping
to a safe distance.
Listening, they heard the horn rattling over the rocky floor as the
snake was carrying it home into the midst of its comrades, when, after
the silence of a minute or so, an explosion like a clap of thunder
shook the ground on which they stood, and blue streams issued forth
between the crevices around the den, and a thick volume from its mouth.
Rattlesnake Den was thus cleared of its inhabitants for many long years.
Catlin affirms that the Valley of the Wyoming used to be more infested
with these terrible pests than any other portion of the globe. Every
summer the lives of persons as well as cattle were destroyed by them,
and the ‘happy little valley’ would have been rendered uninhabitable
but for the periodical _battues_.[81]
Howe in his Histories of Ohio and of Virginia relates many similar
facts. A Mr. Stone, one of the first settlers of the ‘Western Reserve’
along the shore of Lake Erie, has immortalized himself as a slayer of
rattlesnakes. They were ‘in great plenty along the track,’ and he being
the first to ‘survey’ the land in 1796, had the honour of doing battle
with them. In Trumbull County they abounded. One year, about the first
of May 1799, a large party armed with cudgels proceeded to a sunny
level of rock on which hosts of the reptiles had crept. Approaching
cautiously, step by step, the enemy came upon them suddenly, and then
began to cudgel with all their might. Hot and furious was the fight;
the rattles were ringing as the snakes beat a retreat up the hill, and
the ground was strewed with the slain: four hundred and eighty-six were
that day collected, most of them over five feet in length.
In another of these spring campaigns eight hundred rattlesnakes were
killed, including a few of their relatives the copper-head, and
hundreds more of harmless snakes of which the slayers ‘took no account.’
Holbrooke records that once in New York State two men in three days
killed 1104 rattlesnakes on an eastern slope of Tongue mountain.
Many hairbreadth escapes during these adventures form the subjects of
exciting stories in the domestic annals of American settlers, but are
becoming more and more histories of the past. In many localities where
formerly rattlesnakes swarmed, they have almost totally disappeared or
have become very rare. Probably with their friends the Indians, they
will in time become wholly extinct.
New species have, however, been discovered by the explorers of the new
Western States and in Tropical America, where, in the sparsely-settled
districts, they still come into houses as of yore, and where the
rattlesnake campaign is still an annual sport for the venturesome
pioneers. In 1872, two thousand of the species _Crotalus confluentus_
were killed in the Yellowstone Region.
One other question in the history of the rattlesnake—‘Does it swallow
its young in times of danger?’ or more correctly speaking, ‘Does
it receive its young into its œsophagus as a place of safety?’—is
considered in chap. xxvii.
Other discussions of modern times, both in assemblies of zoologists
and through printed correspondence, have been on the rattle, when and
why vibrated, how affected by damp, etc., all claiming a place in
rattlesnake history, but considered elsewhere in this work. A whole
volume might be written on this rattling tail, evolved out of the
scant materials of the sixteenth century into the prolific matter of
the nineteenth. You can scarcely take up one of the many scientific
journals of the United States, in which zoology forms a part, without
finding mention of a rattlesnake. Within a very few years the subject
has been popularized in our own zoological journals also.
In connection with the venom come of course the cures, concerning
which the experiments of Dr. Weir Mitchell form a notable point in
rattlesnake history. But serpent venom and its remedies, so far as lies
within my province to discuss them, come also in a special chapter.
In concluding this one, I will roughly enumerate the species of
rattlesnakes now best known. We have seen that formerly only one or
two different kinds were noticed, and the subsequent multiplication
of species is due almost as much to science and to a more careful
observation of the distinguishing features, as to the discovery of
absolutely new ones.
The frequent Exploring Expeditions fitted out by the United States
Government for Geographical Boundaries, Pacific Railroads, Geological
Surveys, etc., with always a zoologist on their Staff of Scientific
Men, have added much to our knowledge of natural history; and in the
Reports and Bulletins of these may be sifted out information in every
branch of Science. Thus in _Crotalus_ chronicles, our two original
rattlesnakes have increased and are still increasing. In 1831, the
late Dr. J. E. Gray, of the British Museum Natural History Department,
enumerated six genera and eleven species belonging to America. In 1860,
Dr. Weir Mitchell gave about twenty species as belonging to two genera
only, and distinguished by their head scales.
As this book has no scientific pretensions, and as its aim is rather to
interest a large class of readers than systematically to instruct the
few, I will not attempt a list of genera and species with all their
perplexing names, if indeed a true list of all the now known species
even exist. They are distinguished by the shields or plates on the
head, and by the varying tails. Some have rattles so small as barely to
entitle them to the name of _Crotalus_.
Then, again, a new name is frequently adopted by the discoverer of
a new feature; and a number of American genera, _minus_ a rattle
altogether, are included among the _Crotalidæ_, an anomaly which will
be presently explained. Here we have to do with only the rattlesnake
proper, viz. the ‘Viper with the Bell,’ _Vipera caudisona_ of Tyson,
and the _Crotalus_ of Linnæus.
This word _Crotalus_, simply a rattle, from the Greek word _crotalon_,
and the Latin _crotalia_ and _crotalum_, a kind of castanets, is as
suitable as any that could possibly have been assigned to the snake;
and most of the generic names are compounds of it: _Crotalophorus_,
rattle-bearing; _Crotalina_, little rattle; _Crotaloidæ_;
_Urocrotalon_, rattling tail; or simply _Crotalus_. Then the specific
name more especially describes the snake in colour, size, character,
locality, etc., as _Oregonus_, from Oregon; _Kirtlandii_, from Dr.
Kirtland of Ohio, who first described that species; _horridus_, from
the hideous, terrible character of this large snake; _miliarius_, a
very small one; _caudisona_, sounding tail; and so on.
Their geographical range is from about 45° north, to the Gulf of
Mexico, Texas, and southward; and in South America to about the same
degree of climate and temperature as in the northern latitudes. They
are most virulent in the hottest seasons, the tropical regions, and
according to their size; though, as is the case with other venomous
snakes, a small species in hot weather and with a large store of venom
may be more noxious than the largest in a half-torpid state and with a
small supply of venom.
There is one known as the ‘Prairie rattlesnake;’ another frequents the
marshy districts of Ohio; another, the swamps of the Southern States
along the coast; a fourth is known as the ‘Western rattlesnake;’ some
of the 20 species described in the United States being more abundant in
the mountainous regions, others near the rivers.
In the wilder regions of Central and South America they also abound;
but less is known of them where there are no United States Exploring
Expeditions to record them.
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