Snake in Colour, but rather lighter.
They hiss exactly like a Goose, when any thing approaches them.
They strike at their Enemy with their Tail, and kill whatsoever
they wound with it, which is arm'd at the End with a horny Substance,
like a Cock's Spur. This is their Weapon. I have heard it credibly reported,
by those who said they were Eye-Witnesses, that a small Locust-Tree,
about the Thickness of a Man's Arm, being struck by one of these Snakes,
at Ten a Clock in the Morning, then verdant and flourishing,
at four in the Afternoon was dead, and the Leaves red and wither'd.
Doubtless, be it how it will, they are very venomous. I think,
the Indians do not pretend to cure their Wound.
{Water-Snakes.}
Of Water-Snakes there are four sorts. The first is of the Horn-Snakes Colour,
though less. The next is a very long Snake, differing in Colour,
and will make nothing to swim over a River a League wide.
They hang upon Birches and other Trees by the Water-Side.
I had the Fortune once to have one of them leap into my Boat,
as I was going up a narrow River; the Boat was full of Mats,
which I was glad to take out, to get rid of him. They are reckon'd poisonous.
A third is much of an English Adder's Colour, but always
frequents the Salts, and lies under the Drift Seaweed,
where they are in abundance, and are accounted mischievous, when they bite.
The last is of a sooty black Colour, and frequents Ponds and Ditches.
What his Qualities are, I cannot tell.
{Swamp-Snakes.}
Of the Swamp-Snakes there are three sorts, which are very near akin
to the Water-Snakes, and may be rank'd amongst them.
The Belly of the first is of a Carnation or Pink Colour;
his Back a dirty brown; they are large, but have not much Venom in them,
as ever I learnt. The next is a large Snake, of a brown Dirt Colour,
and always abides in the Marshes.
The last is mottled, and very poisonous. They dwell in Swamps Sides,
and Ponds, and have prodigious wide Mouths, and (though not long)
arrive to the Thickness of the Calf of a Man's Leg.
{Red-Belly Land-Snakes.}
These frequent the Land altogether, and are so call'd,
because of their red Bellies, which incline to an Orange-Colour.
Some have been bitten with these sort of Snakes, and not hurt;
when others have suffer'd very much by them. Whether there be
two sorts of these Snakes, which we make no Difference of,
I cannot at present determine.
{Red-Back Snakes.}
I never saw but one of these, which I stept over, and did not see him;
till he that brought the Chain after me, spy'd him.
