THE LIVING TY

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 48, 20 July 1908, Page 8

THE LIVING TY

Here is the latest specimen <M transatlantic fertility in the matter of imagination. It would be a pity to spoil it by my alteration. A Westerner said he had been reading so many "fake” stories about the remarkable behaviour of the lower animals that he felt impelled to tell a story that was true. He said strictly true, but the simpler form seems quite sufficient. He said he was touring across the big alkali desert in the cold spring of '99. He didn't locate the desert, nor tell how much of it was alka and how much was lie. He merely said he was crossing it in a light touring-car, and was pretty near the further margin, when his attention was attracted tq something thrash* ing about in the sajid a little distanci away from the beaten track. He stopped the car, and went over and found a hoop snake with a sand crab firmly fastened to the tip of its tail. The man said the snake looked at him so appealingly that he promptly released it. When he started away he was surprised tc l find that the hoop-snake was rolling along the sandy road close behind i him. He hadn't gone far, however, when one of his tyres went flat. Htf got out the jack, lifted the wheel, took off the tyre, and found that thi inner tube was practically ruined He hadn't anqther inner tube, anc didn’t want to run on the rim.

He was feeling a good deal discouraged, when the hoop-snake suddenly rolled up and unhesitatingly coiled itself around the wheel in tht jilace of the useless tyre. The man says he ran about thro« miles with the snake-tyre, and didn't stop until he came within sight of a sign bearing the word ‘‘Garage.’ Then he thanked the snake and re leased it. Now he wants to know if it waf plain gratitude qr merely instinct that impelled the snake to come tc his aid. «