. Old Ironsides, the hero of Tripoli and 1812, and other tales and adventures on sea and land . up the weapon he directed our atten-tion to the use of the little gutter I have for it the blood caused by a wound from thearrow would soon clot and cease to flow, and, insome instances, the injured person might recover;but the crevice prevented this clotting by furnish-ing what may be called a pipe, through which acontinuous flow of blood took place. Thus it hasoften happened that a person has received a woundfrom which, with prompt care, he might have re-covered, but who, through thi
. Old Ironsides, the hero of Tripoli and 1812, and other tales and adventures on sea and land . up the weapon he directed our atten-tion to the use of the little gutter I have for it the blood caused by a wound from thearrow would soon clot and cease to flow, and, insome instances, the injured person might recover;but the crevice prevented this clotting by furnish-ing what may be called a pipe, through which acontinuous flow of blood took place. Thus it hasoften happened that a person has received a woundfrom which, with prompt care, he might have re-covered, but who, through this cruel^artifice, hassteadily bled to death. Fearful as is this device, it can bear no compar-ison to that of poisoning the arrows, as practisedby the Apache and Piute Indians. The rattle-snake venom forms the basis in both cases. ThePiutes do not extract the poison until the reptileis dead, while the Apache lays it under contribu-tion while still alive. The rattlesnake of the Llano Estacado, orStaked Plains, is some six feet in length, witha thickness of three or four inches at the largest. PREPARING THE POISON. 65 66 OLD IRONSIDES. part. Its huge head is triangular in shape, andit has fangs an inch long, often fitted with twosets. The poison sacs at the base of the fangs areas large as the end of a childs little finger, andare filled to bursting with venom. It is of a brightyellow color, its markings being similar to thesame species found in the East. It is always prudent to give the rattlesnake ofthe Southwest a respectful berth, especially dur-ing the month of August, when he is at his weather then becomes intolerably hot, andthe reptile from some cause assumes a bloated ap-pearance, and is fully a fourth larger than ordi-nary. Instead of crawling out of ones path, ashe generally does, he lies still in August, writh hisbead-like eyes fixed upon man or animal until hecomes within reach. Then the triangular headdarts forward like a streak of yellow lightning, andit
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