Note 42 — Chapter VII · Prairies in Minnesota and Iowa.—Boulders.—Glacial Drift.—Wild Rice.—Snow Storm.—Nebraska.—The Pawnees.—Human Sacrifices.—Note on Indian Customs in War and Cannibalism.—Prairie Fires.—Prairie-Dog Villages.—Rattlesnakes.—Variations in the succession of growths of Trees.—Causes of absence of Trees upon Prairies.—Shoshone Indians on the Western Deserts.—Note upon Ute Indians and Fuegians.
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The subject of the destruction of snakes is mentioned by Mr. Murray, in his “Travels in North America.”
When passing through a ravine in the territories of the Pawnees he observed, “I never should have believed it possible that so many rattlesnakes could have been assembled together as I saw in that ravine. I think there must have been nearly enough to fatten a drove of Missouri hogs,” and he adds in a note. “It is well known that in the Western States where rattlesnakes are still plentiful the hogs kill and eat them; nor is their bite formidable to their swinish enemy, on whom its venomous fangs seem to produce no effect. It is owing to this well-known fact that families resident in those districts conceive that hogs-lard must be a kind of antidote to their poison, and frequently use it (I believe successfully) as a remedy.” (Travels in North America, by Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, Vol. ii, pp. 42.)
An Englishman who had a large farm in West Virginia, told me that the hillsides were cleared of the snakes, which had previously infested them, by turning out pigs upon them.
A similar result took place in Minnesota and upon the prairies east of the Missouri.