A  friend  who  related  to  me  this  observation  had  made  his
way  to  a  lake  deep  in  the  swamp  and  quietly  sat  down  by  the
side  of  the  stream  and  commenced  fishing.  There  was  absolute
quiet  about  him  for  an  hour  or  so — the  stillness  was  broken
by  a  dull  thud  upon  the  ground.  Turning  about  to  determine


262


CREATURES  OF  MYSTERY


the  cause  of  it  he  saw  a  squirrel  apparently  dead  lying  upon
the  ground.  He  was  in  the  pink  of  condition  and  he  marveled
that  a  squirrel  so  sleek  and  fat  should  have  died  so  suddenly
and  came  toppling  down  out  of  the  top  of  a  black-gum,  but
carried  on  with  his  fishing,  looking  to  the  future  for  a  solution
of  the  mystery.  Presently  a  swamp  snake  came  slithering  down
from  the  top  of  the  tree  to  the  lower  limbs,  which  almost
touched  the  ground.  Leaping  from  the  lower  limbs  he  hurried
along  to  claim  his  quarry.  There  had  been  no  struggle  up  in
the  treetop,  and  the  reptile  was  not  the  venomous  species,  so
what  was  the  answer?

An  aged  friend,  known  to  me  to  be  absolutely  truthful,  re¬
lated  in  detail  an  exciting  encounter  he  once  had  with  a  dia¬
mond-back  which  illustrates  unmistakably  that  this  reptile  pos¬
sesses  unblievable  fleetness  when  speed  appears  to  him  to  be
the  safest  deliverance  from  an  unhealthy  situation.  At  the
time,  he  was  riding  his  saddle  horse.  Dismounting,  he  opened
the  gate  to  a  large  field  which  had  been  grazed  clean  by  his
cattle,  and  as  he  did  so  he  came  upon  a  large  diamond-back  on
the  inside  of  the  field.  A  dense  swamp  at  the  lower  side  of  the
field,  some  two  or  three  hundred  yards  away,  appeared  to  him
to  be  the  safest  refuge,  so  he  headed  for  it  at  a  dizzy  pace.
