Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1894 — FISHING WITH A BLACKSNAKE. [ARTICLE]

FISHING WITH A BLACKSNAKE.

The Reptile Wag a Born Angler and Fond of the Sport. Here is a snake story from a Bechuanaland paper, which we do not remember having seen before: A Barberton man who goes to church regularly was one day walking along the banks of Concession creek eating a sandwich, and on account of the usual disparity between meat and bread, he threw the redundant piece into the water. linmedialety a swarm of yellow fish bubbled round it fighting for the mouthful. The man searched his pockets for fishing tackle, but all in vain, and he was just beginning to die of despair when his eyes lighted on a big blacksnake. At that moment he remembered hotv his father used to tell him that blacksnakes wore very expert in catching fish, lie, therefore, grabbed the reptile by the tail, carried it to the river and hold it over the struggling fish. The snake proved itself a born angler, and in .he course of an hour the man had capt ired forty tine fish. A few’ days later, as he was walking in the same place he felt something rubbing against his leg, and, looking down, he saw his friond, the blacksnake, eager for more sport.