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.