Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1895 — He Leaped for Life. [ARTICLE]

He Leaped for Life.

James H. Budd, of California, recently told the following story of an escape from the bite of a rattlesnake which he once had: “I was up in Calaveras County Using along the Stanislaus. I had been told of an almost inaccessible pool up the river at the base of the perpendicular cliffs, and fairly alive with trout. I found the place, and also found that there was only one way to get a hook in the pool. I had to climb on my hands and knees up a steep path to a sort ci shelf on the cliff. On the other side of the shelf was a sheer drop of forty feet down to the pool. Just as I dragged myself upon the top of the ledge the whirr of a rattlesnake startled me. Naturally I jumped to my feet, exhausted as I was, but dropped my fishing rod. “The coiled rattler was within two feet of me and preparing to strike. Either I had to get down on my hands and knees again or jump forty feet Into the pool. As I saw the diamond head of the snake draw back to strike I decided and jumped. Just as I sprung the rattler struck. I had a pair of moccasins on my feet and the fangs of the snake fastened in the one nearest him. As I went down I remember seeing the snake flying over the side of the pool. Its fangs had caught and I had carried it with me. “Just what happened in the second or two after I struck the water in my dive of forty feet I don’t know. Fortunately the pool was fairly deep. As I dragged myself upon the rocks at tha edge, I realized with a thankfulness I never knew before that I was not only alive but had escaped the snake and broken bones. I was badly bruised, but. not seriously hurt. What became of the snake I don’t know.”