He Is Reckon'd Amongst The Worst Of Snakes;
And Stays Out The Longest Of Any Snake I Know, Before He Returns
(In The Fall Of The Leaf) To His Hole.
{Horn-Snake.}
Of the Horn-Snakes I never saw but two, that I remember.
They are like the Rattle-
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.
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