12d. Freeing the serpents

John had at least one uniquely sawed-off talent. He could hold his breath (at the surface) for six and a half minutes; I myself, a shorter but adequate, four and a half minutes.
Back in the good old days, when the swimming area of the Black Lagoon was restricted only by ones spirit of adventure, he would free dive down to the bottom at around 110ft. The ascent is the dangerous part because pressure helps breath holding and if you’re going to black out you do it near the surface. So our methodology was for me to start down as John started up and travel with him from about 50ft to the surface with the plan to do something constructive if he passed out while still under water. I bring this up only because the performance one evening at the headwaters of the Wacissa River required all of John’s breath holding powers to achieve the desired effect.

John owned a Volkswagen beetle, trunk in the front, and I was in possession of a water snake surplus. So one evening I talked him into taking me and about a dozen good sized Natrix to the sandy parking area just downstream of where the Wacissa River came out of the ground on the outskirts of the town of Wacissa.

When we arrived there were two middle-aged regular sportsmen standing at the water’s edge. They looked to be discussing something like a planned fishing trip or possibly some detail of the wide area of mostly vegetation covered water that is a standard North Florida river swamp. Id est a place where there are already too many snakes.

As we slowed to a stop I told John, “Do not say a word”. Without drum roll, I got out, John popped the ‘hood’ and I lifted the snake filled bag out of the trunk. John maintained silence but he was doing a lot of looking back and forth at me and the two men because he knew what I was about to do. What I did was slowly, and individually, pull snake after snake out of the bag and dropped it back in the river.

The best part of this story is not mine to tell as the best part is the version told by the audience. In the event nobody said a word. The two men were literally speechless. I’d give a lot to know what, or if, they ever spoke of the event or concluded that it was best left without comment. Sawed-off sportsmen occasionally have that effect upon others. For John’s part he almost killed us on the drive back because when he finally burst forth he just kept yelling ”Putting snakes back in the river, putting snakes back in the river” while he pounded the steering wheel as we headed home.

ML
6/7/07

12c. Canoeing for snakes

If you know how to drive a canoe you generally end up in the back. However a day’s outing of graduate students and advisor on the Wacissa River has certain expectations of adventure with the sawed-off afloat. This constituted a real opportunity for….payback!

Many are the stories of snakes jumping into boats passing under tree limbs. Falling is really more like it as you cannot “jump” if you have no legs. I do not doubt it has happened but suspect that the logical possibility is what fuels most stories for water snakes do spend a lot of time sunning on limbs over water as they can escape quickly by dropping.

Now I knew the Wacissa had plenty of water snakes; big brown water snakes were its long suit. It was mid morning and a likely time for them to be sunning on tree limbs over the water. It took a few passes to spot exactly what they were doing but it became clear a particular arbor geometry was favored and they were tending to be on the down stream side.

Stan was in the canoe’s stern and after a few trips past some brown’s sunning he knew what we were looking for. What we were going to do about it was the only thing that could possibly work.

Because the water was fairly swift, and water snakes are quick to fall into the river when trouble approached, we had to make our move quickly. I suspect it all worked as well as it did because the snakes were so accustomed to passing canoeists they could not believe that an approaching canoe would paddle as fast as possible directly at them and into the foliage. We had the added advantage of some concealment because the snakes were on the down stream side of the limbs with leaves blocking their view of our attack. The downside was we were not entirely sure what (all) was on the limb as we careened in.

And so it went. The other boats would stop paddling and start watching. Stan would line us up with an accurate current/canoe heading and paddle as fast as possible, with me hanging over the bow, into the tree.

There were always a number of possible, not mutually exclusive, outcomes including capsizing, finding nothing, finding a cottonmouth, finding a wasp nest. As events unfolded there would be much limb and leaf shaking and back outwards Stan would paddle us with me waving a big brown water snake over my head for all to see.

We ended up with quite a few brown water snakes. I do not remember if we kept them that day but I do remember a time of having too many water snakes and returning to the headwaters of the Wacissa River with a bagful.

ML

6-6-07