My First Cottonmouth View

I arrived in Jacksonville, Florida about May of 1960 for a stay of some three years.  By the time I had been there for three years or so I’d heard plenty about cotton-mouth moccasins, but I had never seen one personal and close-up.  I must admit it was not my fondest desire to do that anyway.

I lived in a mobilehome park with no nearby water sources such as creeks or rivers so I had no particular thoughts I would wander into one.  On 103^rd Street where the park was located there was a Gulf gas station next door.  I bought all of my gas there as it was handy, and I knew and liked the man who owned and operated the business.  I don’t know why, but fifty years later I just can’t recall his name.

One day I stopped for gas as usual and there on top of an upended fifty-five gallon oil drum lay a dead cottonmouth.  Even though I wanted no part of touching one, or any other close relationship, yet I just had to get near and look it over.  It’s head was at the near edge of the drum.  It’s body crossed the diameter of the drum and hung about a foot down the opposite side, so it must have been about three and a half feet in total length.  I don’t know how it was accomplished, but the mouth was propped open with two sticks each about five inches long, one on each side.  The inner mouth and throat was pure white, yet a sort of opalescent hue at the same time.  It seemed very scary to me, but that was probably my inner fear rather than a real fact.  The mouth opened so wide it would have been possible to have easily stuck my complete balled up fist inside without touching any part of it, but you couldn’t have paid me enough to have ever done that.

The snake was unusual in that it had four definite sections.  The head was large, but the neck was much thinner.  Then the body thickened three or four times larger than the neck to about a four inch diameter.  Finally the tail beginning at the end of the body was much smaller again, like the neck.

That is the only time I ever got really close to a cottonmouth, and let me assure you, if that snake had twitched any muscle in it’s body I would have instantly set a record for the 100 meter dash.