HAVE SNAKES IMMORTAL SOULS?
WE herewith present from the Forest and Stream a remarkable account, by an eye-witness, of the fishing exploits of the water moccasin, which implies not only a knowledge on the part of the snake of the operations of nature, time, and locality, but a regular process of philosophical reasoning based thereon. We do not argue from this that snakes have immortal souls, but only present it to our friends who hold the heretofore popular view of the immortality of the soul, as a problem for them to solve according to the premises which they maintain. If such evident operations of mind prove an immortal soul for man, what do they prove for the snake? The narrative says:— For a number of years past it has been my custom,361because unable to find any better way to dispose of my summer leisure, to do a good deal of fishing in the Potomac River, sometimes in the immediate front of the city, sometimes at the Little and Big Falls above, and sometimes at the Four Mile Run below. I have generally used live bait, there being minnows in any quantity along the edges of the river. Three summers ago I went to catch minnows at the mouth of a small run called Gravelly Creek, situated on the west bank of the river, just at the foot of the Arlington estate. A short distance north of the run is the once quite celebrated Arlington Springs, which is still a place of resort for large numbers of Sunday visitors from the city. To reach the springs, except by boat, it is necessary to cross Gravelly Creek near its mouth, or go quite a long distance around the creek. To enable parties to cross the creek at the mouth, a passage-way has been made by a kind of loose dam of stones. At low water the creek here is some forty feet wide, but at full tide it is fully sixty feet, and four or five feet deep. The loose stones form quite an impediment to the tide, so that, when the tide is rising, the water on the river side of the dam is several inches higher than the water on the other side, and flows through and over the loose stones quite rapidly, and the reverse is the case when the tide is falling. Vast numbers of minnows are to be found at all times in the marsh along the river banks, and as the tide rises they seek the runs to be found here and there to avoid the white and yellow perch, which prey upon them, and it is while they are making up the creek that I catch the quantity I want. One day, while catching minnows as usual, I noticed a number of snakes, the common water moccasin, approaching the dam or footway of stones. The water yet lacked several inches of reaching the top of the stoneway, although it was rushing in quite rapidly and carrying with it many bull-minnows and small white perch that were unable to resist it. Watching the snakes, I saw one after another reach the dam and take their station upon it, submerging themselves all but their heads, which were raised about an inch above the water and pointed in the direction of the incoming tide. In this position I counted seventeen snakes, arranged at uneven intervals, in a space of less than sixty feet. I came to the conclusion at once that they were fishing, and watched them with a good deal of interest. Pretty soon I saw one head strike forward, going under the water, reappearing in a moment with a very large bull-minnow in its mouth. The snake immediately loosened its hold upon the rocks and swam for the shore, reaching which it disappeared in the bushes; and this was repeated at intervals by each of the seventeen snakes. When they returned from the bushes, having made short work of their “catch,” each snake sought his own particular location on the rocks, there being no clashing of interests there. Now, how is this for reason or instinct? How do these snakes know where to locate themselves, and the particular stage of the tide at which to start on their fishing excursion? How do they know that a number of minnows will be swept over the miniature falls made by the rocks? These are questions that go beyond my comprehension, and I leave them for others to answer. But the facts remain, and any one who will take the trouble may verify them at any time during the summer by a visit to Gravelly Creek.