Lewis: September 5, 1804

Sept 5th saw some wild goats or antelopes on the hill above the Glauber
Salts Springs they ran off we could not discover them sufficiently
distinctly to discribe even their colour their track is as large as a deer
reather broader & more blont at the point

This day one of our hunters brought us a Serpent beautifully variagated
with small black spotts of a romboydal form on a light yellow white ground
the black pedominates most on the back the whiteis yellow on the sides,
and it is nearly white on the belly with a few party couloured scuta on
which the black shews but imperfectly and the colouring matter seems to be
underneath the Scutait is not poisonous it hisses remarkably loud;
it has 221 Scuta on the belly and 51 on the tale, the eyes are of a dark
black colour the tale terminates in a sharp point like the substance of a
cock’s spurLength 4 Ft. 6 I.