Held Up By Snakes
"We reacbed the Wolf inonntain, íd the Big Iïorn country, 011e day in September, " saitl H. P. Tuttle, formerly au army engineer, ' 'while to the sonth were dimly visible the outliiies of the Rattlesnake mountaius. These naines were given to these rnuntains by both the Crow aud Sioux Indiana, who regarded them with horror. Late on the afternoon of onr first day iu these monntaina I sent all of my party to camp, about two miles to tho aonthwest. Goiug forward with my transit to where I had sent my head flagman, I placed it iu position and told him he conld return to camp, as I ha;l to remain in order to niake an astrouoinical observation early in the eveniug. "Taking oil his belt, which held a hoge revolver and a sheath knife about a foot in length, be hamled it to me. saying that I might need it after dark, as he had just seen a sniall pack of wolves ahead. After he had gone I looked over the ground about me and saw that I waa on a flat topped hill covered ivith largo bowlders and small stones, bnt entirely destitnte of vegetation. Seating myself beside a big bowlder, I took out my notebook and began writing up my notes for the day, when darkness suddenly reminded me that it was about time to niake my astronomical observations. This was soon over, and I started off at a brisk walk toward our camp. "Ihad not gone overahundred yards when I saw, u few feet ahead of me, a long, black object lying directly in my path. I wantod a walking stiok badly, and was stooping down to piek it up when I noticed the end of it farthest frora me was white. Taking a match from my pocket and tearinga leaf from the back of my notebook, I soon had the desired light, and what was my horror to see that the supposed stick was nothing bnt one of the deadly green rattlesnakes, completely paralyzed by the chilly night air. "Another light s"; t6 taat the white object was the snakt . 4ttles. So oíd was he that his rattlep liad turnad white. Holding my revolver within a foot of his head, I fired and blew it entirely off. But now carne another surprise' which for a moment made me tremble. The report of my revolver had awakened dozens of rattlers who had sought shelter under the looserocks before sunset. The sounds oame from all directions, and som e seemed close to my feet. "To one who has been in the forest and heard the noiso made by hundreds of locusta he can readily realizemy situation, for the buzz of a rattlesnako is exactly like the buzz of a loenst. The ouly thingnowfor me todo was to stand in my tracks all night or make my way back to the bowlder from which I started, but there was a difficulty, for in the exciteinent 1 had forgotten the direction. But 'where there is a will there is a way, ' and by stooping low down and scanning the horizon I soon detected tho outline of my transit against the sky, and cutting off the rattles I was soon beside the bowlder and filled with excitement enongh for one night. "Sitting down by the bowldcr, I made up my mind to pass the night at that spot and was soou sleeping as soundly as one can in the open air, with ouly a canvas coat and the merenry below freezing. About midnight I was suddenly arou.sed by mietbing trying to pull off the shoe from ïiiy lef t foot. In an instant I caught the glaringeyes and outline of a wolf. He had given up his grip as he saw me move, and meehanipally I seized my revolver, which I had left lying in my lap, and n'red as best I could with my halt' frozen hand. ' 'A loud yell showed that he had been strnck, and inimediately a dozen or more wol ves who had been close by sec up a howliug, which in the still nighfc air conld have been heard for miles arouud. For an houi' or two all was qúiet, when a solitary howl a few yards from me was answéred by a dozen othera not 100 yards away. It was too dark to see an animal of the size of a wolf more than 20 feetaway; but, trnstingto luck, í íook the dlréctiou of the pack a? uear as possible and sent three shots at them as rapidly as I could fire ''A couple of yells showed two had been hit, most probably by glancing bulIets. Sooii aíter this the howling of the wolves ceased, and for awhile all was quiet again. "As soou as it was light enough I picked up the string of rattles which I liad secured the uight before and found tliore were 19, and as the 'button' was missing he raay have had several more. A few rods from my transit lay the cleanly pieked bones of a wolf which one of my random shots had killed during the nighf, and on which the coyotes had made a susbtantial meal, but, not satisfied with this, they had devoured the big rattler I liad killed, head and all. ■'Keturning tucamp, I ordered one of my men to cut ten small poles--, not less than eight feet in length, aiid to wake me up at 10 o'clock. At that hour we all started for the place where I had p:isi-il the night. Hero we found, as I had expected, the warm rays of the sun had brought out tin1 snakea from their biding places to bask in the snnhsine. " We weie greeted with a defiance uot unlike that of a thonsaud July locusta, aud the work of destrnction began iu real eaniest. In one hour and ten minutes our bag contained 213 rattlers, varyiug from one foot to over three feet in leugth, and of a dark green color. Only two were found whose rattlos had tnrneii gra. We could have destroyed hundrccls more had our time not been too valnablè to waste in such sport. We saw but ffw rattlers af ter leaving this point, bul the wol ves made night hideous until we reached the Little Missouri river, mouth líiter. "-
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Ann Arbor Argus
Old News