. By its
means the fang is elevated or depressed. When the snake opens its mouth
to strike its victim, the depressing muscles are relaxed, and the
opposite series become contracted, causing the fangs to rise up ready
for action. Now look through my magnifying glass. You see that the
fang is hollow from the base to the point, from the former the poison is
pressed up out of the poison-bag and exudes through the fang point,
which, as you see, is in the form of a narrow slit on its concave side."

"I don't see how any liquid could get through that," observed Dan.

"It does though, and quite sufficient comes through to produce a deadly
effect. The other teeth enable the serpent to hold its prey, but are
not in communication with the poison-bags. I'll now show you the
poison, but we must be very cautious how we handle it," observed the
Dominie.

On this he cut open the poison-bags and exhibited a small amount of
pale-yellow oil-like substance. He afterwards cleaned his knife
carefully, and observed, "So potent is the venom, that even should a
small drop remain, and were I to cut my finger, after the lapse of many
days, I might fatally poison my blood. And now, to prevent any
accident, we will bury the poison-bags and fangs, where they are not
likely to do any harm," he added.

Having dug a hole with his axe, he did as he proposed, covering it up
with leaves.

"And now we will have an examination of the creature's tail, in which it
differs from all other reptiles."

Having cut it off, he held it up, and counted the joints, of which the
snake--one of the largest of its species--had twenty. Cutting them
apart he showed us how the apparatus was arranged. I could best
describe it by saying it looked as if a number of small cups were placed
one within the other, flattened on both sides, with rings round the
edges and slightly decreasing in size towards the end, the last joint
being the smallest and forming a knob. These cups are horny and loosely
joined, so as to produce the rattling sound for which the creature is
noted. Every year of its life a new joint is supposed to be added, so
that the reptile killed by the black snake, must have been twenty years
old. Each joint was in form somewhat like the tip end of my thumb. I
have often since seen rattlesnakes, though seldom one so large.
Generally I have found them coiled up among the dry herbage, with the
tip of the tail raised in the centre of the coil. On seei