Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1882 — Why Snakes are Long. [ARTICLE]

Why Snakes are Long.

“Do you see that fellow up there?” said Mr. Rivers, pointing to a huge red snake, some ten feet long ana two inches thick, of the kind known as the gopher snake. “I’d rati .er have that fellow on my farm—if I had a farm—than ten dollars. You would be astonished at the amount of vermin of all kinds they can get away with—gophers, rabbits, squirrels, birds—anything, in fact that he is big enough to get himself outside of, and that means a good deal, although you might not think it to look at him. You are aware, I suppose, of the peculiar construction of the lower jaw. It can be unhinged, so to speak, and then the snake is nothing more than a long sack with the mouth open. I have watched one of them stow away a squirrel—long tall and all —without making any bones about it He commenced at the head, and slowly drew the squirrel in, bit by bit, his teeth and jaws working on the animal somewhat as a man draws in a rope hand over hand. Finally the body was safely housed, and then only the tail remained; that slipped down in the twinkling of an eye. I never realized till then why snakes were made so long; It is to make room for the inconvenient tales of the other animals predestined to be snake meat. In an improved state of existence, when the tails have been evolutionized off the backs of the other animals, probably snakes will be cut shorter.”— Ban Francisco Call,