Raymond Ditmars snake-hunting in the South Carolina swamps, c. 1915.
The steamy, mosquito-ridden swamps of South Carolina literally crawled with reptiles and were a favoured early haunt for Raymond Ditmars.
Packing a luggage of canvas bags, fine soft copper wire for noosing and an abundance of quinine, the snake hunters would head south to Savannah, Georgia, aboard one of many steamers then plying the eastern coast before completing the trip by wagon.
Their final destination was the Pineland Club near the tiny settlement of Robertsville in Hampton County, South Carolina. Owned by friends of the New York Zoological Society, this shooting preserve with rented cabins on the northern flood plain of the Savannah River was perfect for sorties into nearby cypress swamps, hummocks, grasslands, pine woods, and cotton fields infested with cold-blooded life.
Patrolling the swamps, causeways, or narrow deer paths on horses, mules, or a simple buckboard wagon, the famed Bronx Zoo curator and his associates would be equipped with wire nooses and, despite the stifling heat, wore “an armor of heavy brown duck, high top boots, and stout flexible gloves.” As an added precaution Ditmars always carried a revolver.
Having noosed a venomous snake such as a water moccasin (aka cottonmouth) or rattlesnake, he would manoeuvre “the puffing, thrashing, spitting reptile twixt thumb and forefinger around the neck,” dropping it into a fabric sack. The latter would be given “a quick swirl so that the fang that darts forth instantly is embedded in a thick fold of cloth.”
At a meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York City held exactly 114 years ago today in the library of the American Museum of Natural History, the curator expounded upon a recent visit. According to the Society's Proceedings: "He spoke of the different species of snakes met with, of their habits and of the various methods employed in their capture. He exhibited specimens of thirteen of the species obtained.’
Packing a luggage of canvas bags, fine soft copper wire for noosing and an abundance of quinine, the snake hunters would head south to Savannah, Georgia, aboard one of many steamers then plying the eastern coast before completing the trip by wagon.
Their final destination was the Pineland Club near the tiny settlement of Robertsville in Hampton County, South Carolina. Owned by friends of the New York Zoological Society, this shooting preserve with rented cabins on the northern flood plain of the Savannah River was perfect for sorties into nearby cypress swamps, hummocks, grasslands, pine woods, and cotton fields infested with cold-blooded life.
Patrolling the swamps, causeways, or narrow deer paths on horses, mules, or a simple buckboard wagon, the famed Bronx Zoo curator and his associates would be equipped with wire nooses and, despite the stifling heat, wore “an armor of heavy brown duck, high top boots, and stout flexible gloves.” As an added precaution Ditmars always carried a revolver.
Having noosed a venomous snake such as a water moccasin (aka cottonmouth) or rattlesnake, he would manoeuvre “the puffing, thrashing, spitting reptile twixt thumb and forefinger around the neck,” dropping it into a fabric sack. The latter would be given “a quick swirl so that the fang that darts forth instantly is embedded in a thick fold of cloth.”
At a meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York City held exactly 114 years ago today in the library of the American Museum of Natural History, the curator expounded upon a recent visit. According to the Society's Proceedings: "He spoke of the different species of snakes met with, of their habits and of the various methods employed in their capture. He exhibited specimens of thirteen of the species obtained.’
Water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus) enjoying the last rays of sunshine, South Carolina (Photo © Dan Eatherley)
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