Show AA IXTEUESTttG HOCK I 1CRMXOOUT HCSDHED3OK SNAKES I TO BE rBOJIPTLY KILLED I There a rock In I a lot near Wll Ham Van Fleets farmhouse at I JInj s clearing which becomes an object of general Interest as spring approaches It Is a HeHtred rock I stout twelve feet long and rising three feet above the surface The fissures are ijerpendlcular and evidently r1d J dently lead down the rock aa far a it goes beneath the ground The r ck Is not more than ten rods from Van Fleets house and the same distance from the public road For twenty years pr more It has been i known as the snake rock I In April 15iO a man who worked I for VanFieet was passing close to the big stone when he say a snake coming slowly out of one of tbe crevices It was what Is known asa as-a milk snake While the man was watching the snake other snakes began be-gan ta appear at different crevices until he counted forty There were black snakes blowing adders and common striped snakes The hired man went back to the home and got Van Fleet and the two remained by the rock until they had Idled SuOsaakes All through that month snakea kept coming out of the rock and over 500 were killed ilow many got away was not known but there mu t have been quite a number num-ber for the next sprltig the rock yielded Just as many more that had gone there to hibernate and winter over overTbe snakebrailng rock became locally famous In tlmeand for years as toon as the weather begins to get warm in the Mirlnjr farmers and others come to 1 an Fleets lot from miles around to see the snakes conIng ing out and to have a hand in kill IDS them The rock inns never failed to give up hundreds snako every spring and the curious part of It is no one Las ever yet been able to tllcover any going into the rock In the fallalthough It hu been closely watched When and how the great collection of cakes gets into the winter quarters In Van Meets rock h a mystery yet lobe solved It Is supposed tho ecrpenU 1 ouppowdRio slip In at ulclit when no one b Hatching T n Ctr JVl Sun |