October 18 1984 SnakesThe Suffolk Times / Second Section
Snakes
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Why is it so many people are afraid
of snakes? Probably it's because of the
many stories about snakes and snake
pits of old. More likely it is because most
people just don't know anything abut
our local snakes. Once a person under-
stands these harmless creatures the pic-
ture of horror they have imagined soon
disappears. Proof of this was evident
last week when my wife and I had the
privilege of taking a young group of
fifth graders from Babylon on a field
trip in the Peconic Dune area.
This lovely area once called Pinecrest
Dunes and run as a private camp, was
acquired by the county many years ago
and has acted as an outdoor teaching
facility ever since. Just recently, due to
budget restrictions, the county gave up
the camp and now leases it to SCOPE
(Suffolk County Organization for the
Promotion of Education). Spring, sum-
mer and fall, groups of school children
come to this unique area with their
teachers and chaperones and live to-
gether to experience learning in this
outdoor environment.
We met our group in the old mess
hall that also serves as their classroom,
laboratory and library. Here bottles of
specimens, collections of leaves, glean-
ings from the beach, nuts from the trees
and a library that would make any sci-
ence teacher envious, spread out around
the room. There were tattered
notebooks with youthful drawings of
events and sights seen, pages of records
of what went on and what to look for.
One couldn't help feeling there was
learning going on here. The beauty of
it all was that the kids were bubbling
over with energy and enthusiasm. The
students were getting to know their fel-
low students in a much different atmos-
phere; they were eating and sleeping
together and working together. We saw
no squabbling, nor did we see any dis-
cipline problems in the hours we spent
at the camp. It seemed to us that the
kids just didn't have time for that.
We were amazed at the parent par-
ticipation. When asked how this was
done, we were told that there literally
had been a waiting list of those wishing
to be involved. The kitchen was run by
adult volunteers, and seeing we were
there in between meals, there were car-
rot sticks, celery sticks, apples and
oranges and fruit juice on the counter
for those who wanted it. We saw ho
soda. This mess hall is a busy place, for
it is the center of all activity. All around
the walls, hanging from the rafters and
attached to the crude wooden ceiling
were the badges of placards of past
visiting groups. The chickadees, the
hedgehogs, the gallant ones -- all had
their names and identifications. I'm
sure each was proud of its stay.
Two Surprise Visitors
The camp is on a piece of land that
runs from what we used to call the
Humpty Dumpty Road, or Soundview
Avenue. The northern part is made up
of sand dunes and a great swale area
where beach plums, wild rose and
plants of the hot dry sand only can sur-
vive. We walked the young group
through the dunes and down to the
beach explaining the natural
phenomena that greeted us at every
step. How eager these young people
were for knowledge of the outdoors.
It's here in that great swale area and
undulating dunes we took our group,
and our story comes back to the begin-
ning -- snakes. We had just finished a
sit down where we talked about the
signs of fall and the implications of the
changing season on all life about us.
We had just finished talking about the
migrations of swallows and how they
have to move ahead of the insects that
disappear as the cooler weather ap-
proaches, when Barbara's sharp eyes
picked up the perfectly camouflaged coil
of a snake nestled in the warm sun of
the sand.
It was a small snake, and knowing
the kinds found here I immediately
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
HOG -NOSED SNAKE OR PUFF "ADDER " -- Looking like a small
cobra, this harmless snake puffs out its head and senses the air with
its tongue. This is how it bluffs itself into safety. Actually it is the most
gentle of all our snakes. P.S. - -We have no poisonous snakes on Long
Island.
reached down and picked it up. It was
a hog -nosed snake or puff "adder."
These are wonderfully gentle snakes
and the ideal one for kids to see and
feel. So for the next 15 minutes, once
the fear of danger had passed, each stu-
dent had to hold the snake. It performed
perfectly for them -- its head flattened
out and its sensing tongue tested the
air giving it the appearance of a minia-
ture cobra. The kids were quick to pick
this up and exclaimed all we needed
was a basket and flute to have the tradi-
tional snake charmer picture. We've
had kids on many walks at this lovely
camp but seldom have we found snakes.
Ironically, we found two that day. It
must have been the cold weather that
brought them out onto the warm sand
of the morning sun and put them in
view of us.
Black Snake in Area
Once before we found a four -foot
black snake with its tail vibrating as it
coiled before us off the trail. We left
that one alone, and after 25 pairs of
eyes stared it down, it turned tail and
slid into the underbrush. It was excit-
ing for all the kids, as well as myself,
to see this handsome snake perform.
The black snake is our largest snake on
the Island. Its major food supply is mice,
rats and insects.
Snakes, like turtles, are having a dif-
ficult time as man moves in. His lawns,
his blacktop, his roads, his farm fields
-- all exclude them from the area. All
our snakes are non - poisonous and all
are beneficial. Therefore we should do
as much as we can to protect them.
Being cold - blooded, snakes will soon
be looking for spots to hibernate. Deep
inside a pile of old brush, inside a dead
stump of a tree or buried deep in the
ground, they will remain curled up
throughout the winter, their hearts
barely beating.
Then as the sun warms up the soil
again, they'll be out looking for the mice
and insects that make up their diet.
Snakes, like all wild things, are part of
the world we live in, and if we under-
stand them, we'll not be afraid. Rather,
we'll look forward to meeting them with
enthusiasm as that young group of kids
did last week.
An Octagons/ Innovation of the 7800s
By JOY BEAR
Architecturally the mid -1800s was,
in general, an era of flamboyant and
romantic building styles. It was at this
time that Orson S. Fowler, who was
primarily a phrenologist, introduced
his octagon house design -- a lean, func-
tional style, ahead of its time and
characterized by eight sides, an encircl-
ing porch and a minimum of architec-
tural details. The style was always
crowned with a cupola. His design
caught on, and octagon houses
flourished nationwide between 1850
and 1860.
All of the octagon house details, in-
cluding the porch, were incorporated
into the home Andrew Gildersleeve
built for himself in the heart of Mat -
tituck in 1854 -55. Andrew Gildersleeve
was a master builder who also turned
his hand to tanning, milling, farming,
lumbering and filling a succession of
public offices during his lifetime (1815-
1894). He bought a lot on the corner of
Main Road and Love Lane in 1853, and
started his octagonal house the next
year. To the octagon design he added a
wing on the west side paralleling Main
Road, and a wing on the east side, run-
ning north. At this time Mr. Gil-
dersleeve planted a tree on his property
-- the imposing 130 - year -old tulip tree
you can see there today.
Sheila Wirsing, president of the Mat-
tituck Historical Society, has in her per-
sonal files a photograph of the octagon
house when it had a porch running the
length of the building.
Over the years the house has served
as a store, post office, library, dental
office and private home for several
families, including Carolyn Bell, Mat -
tituck's lovingly remembered artist.
After 120 years of service at the hub
of Mattituck's business district, the oc-
tagon house became delapidated, and
was slated for demolition. The Mat -
tituck Historical Society, under the
leadership of Justice Ralph W. Tuthill
Sr. and later William P. Johnson, began
to work for the preservation of the his-
toric and innovative old building.
Donald J. Clause, a realtor, became
interested in the property. Mr. Clause
had already restored several old houses
in the Hamptons, and located his South
Fork office in one. In 1975 Mr. Clause
took over the octagon house in Mat -
tituck. He and the Mattituck Historical
Society invited Barbara VanLiew and
the Society for the Preservation of Long
Island Antiquities (SPLIA) to study
the house professionally with the hope
of getting it on the National Register
of Historic Places -- the official federal
listing of the nation's cultural proper-
ties. SPLIA members began photo-
graphing, sketching, measuring and fil-
ling out forms. The valued designation
was granted the building in 1976.