[Aestatesommus hiemepericulosus
var. artchildsi (Sharpe, 2020)]
var. artchildsi (Sharpe, 2020)]
“’Fraid of snakes, did you say, sister?” asked the old guide as he smiled at Paula, whose father had brought her up to his favorite place in the North Woods for an early season weekend camping trip.
”I should say I am!” answered Paula. “I’d run miles and miles if I caught the tiniest sight of one!”
“Then I guess you’d be running yet if you’d seen the snow snake I saw last Winter,“ chuckled the old guide. “Lucky you weren’t here then.”
“What’s a snow snake?” demanded Paula.
“Well, miss, I’m one of the few that can answer that question, and it was rare luck for me to catch sight of this fellow, because they rarely get so far south as this. About the farthest south they get in Winter is the timberlands along the Canadian border. Right now I reckon the snow snakes are away up around Hudson Bay.”
“I’d heard first of these snakes from the Indians, who have lots of legends about them. They are supposed to live on owls, weasels and other birds and animals that prey on rabbits, grouse and other favorite game up here. So, you see, the snow snake is a pretty good fellow.”
“Farther up north when you see winding trails in the snow the Indians always tell you the snow snake makes them, and I guess they know.”
