Show SNAKES WERE HARD TO KILL Reptiles From Brazil Were Frozen Stiff on Shipboard but Revived When Put In Warm Water A naturalist once told how In a thicket on a mountainside he saw a man kill a rattlesnake Ho beat the life out of It with a club and con tlnued the pounding until It was mangled man-gled beyond recognition When the naturalist remonstrated the man said Boss you cant kill a rattlesnake too dead On ono occasion a boat bound for the United States from Rio do Janeiro Ja-neiro touched at Pernambuco where the mate drove a bargain with a snake dealer for a halfdozen reptiles of various sizes Tho mate had them In a cage on deck and charged a sailor with the duty of washing It out with sea water every evening All went well as long is the weather was mild but on the night before tho gulf stream was rossed the sailor left a quantity of I water in the cage and about 30 hours flora port a biting gale struck tho ship All hands were busy with the storm and the snakes were forgotten When the mate thought of them and went to lopk after their condition he found them frozen stiff and apparently as dead as the proverbial doornail The dealer for whom the mate had brought them carne on board the following fol-lowing day Ho professed great disappointment dis-appointment over the loss of his intended In-tended purchase but offered to take the snakes away as a kindness to the mate He gathered them In his arms like so much firewood and carried them homo But r rival dealer afterward after-ward told the omcpT 1 that plenty of warm water had resuscitated the snakes and that they had been sold to various museums not a bit tho worse for their death by freezing Harpers Weekly |