The Red Cloud Chief

A Big Snake Story.

Some seven or eight years ago, says the Poughkeepsie (N. Y.) letter to the New York World, much alarm was created along the line of the Bee Housatonic Railroad by the appearance of a tremendous snake, but of what ophidian species he was a sample no one could tell. The reptile made its home in a dense swamp in the vicinity of the railroad track. "Time and again the reptile was shot at by hunting parties, but it always managed to get away safely."

The track of the Housatonic Railroad runs directly through the swamp and. Early one morning the engineer of a passenger train suddenly discovered a long black object lying across the rails and he shut off steam and whistled for brakes. While the speed was slackening the engineer saw that it was the veritable snake, about which so much had been said, and he pulled the throttle again, intending, if possible, to run it down and cut it in two, but just before the engine reached it the end of the tail slid off the rail and almost immediately the entire snake disappeared.

Four or five years ago two men riding in a buggy along a road which skirts the swamp say they saw the now famous snake wriggling slowly across the road. They were certain, from the measurement of the ground where they first saw it, that it was over twenty feet long.

Again the snake excitement broke out in the neighborhood, and parties were organized to hunt the reptile down, without success, and the interest in the matter soon died out. The cause of the disappearance of the snake for the last four years has been a great mystery, but it has been completely solved in an extraordinary manner. Some imagined that the snake had found his way to the Housatonic River, and, escaping death by drowning, thence to the ocean, and became a veritable sea serpent. Others held that he had taken to the mountains.

Really he never left the swamp of his birth, for his colossal remains have been discovered. On Saturday last two men named Kelly and Smith, both well and favorably known in the neighborhood, went into the swamp with a sled to get a load of wood. After a while they came to a large buttonwood tree which had fallen to the ground. They discovered it was hollow, and in order to handle it easily they attempted to saw it up. They had sawed nearly through one part when suddenly the saw grated as though it had struck a stone. Thinking that it was a curious place to find a stone they at once went to work to investigate. They plied their axes and by dint of hard labor split the tree, when to their astonishment the obstacles which the saw had struck proved to be bones. Then they opened the tree as far as they could find bones, some 21 feet, and the remains proved to be those of the monstrous reptile so often seen but never captured. The ribs measured six inches in diameter and from that tapered down to smaller sizes. The tail of the snake was found imbedded in the upper part of the tree, and both men believe he went in backward. It is believed that the last time he was chased, some four years ago, he sought refuge in this tree and never came out again.

The bones and other remains have been preserved and will be sent to the Society of Natural Science, together with a history of the case.