I had left my
companions, and was beginning to clear away a fine clump of trees,
when just in the midst of the thicket, not more than eight yards
from me, one of these fellows set up his hiss. It is a sharp,
continuous sound, and resembles very much the letting off of the steam
from the small pipe of a steamboat, except that it is on a smaller
scale. I knew, by the sound of an axe, that one of my companions was
near, and called out to him, to let him know what I had fallen upon.
He took it very lightly, and as he seemed inclined to laugh at me
for being afraid, I determined to keep my place. I knew that so long
as I could hear the rattle, I was safe, for these snakes never make
a noise when they are in motion. Accordingly, I kept at my work, and
the noise which I made with cutting and breaking the trees kept him in
alarm; so that I had the rattle to show me his whereabouts. Once or
twice the noise stopped for a short time, which gave me a little
uneasiness, and retreating a few steps. I threw something into the
bush, at which he would set his rattle agoing; and finding that he had
not moved from his first place, I was easy again.
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