Marmora Herald - August 19, 1937

Two incidents have occurred during the past week, which have been featured in some of the daily newspapers.

One was the killing of a skunk by Mr. Albert Burridge, while holding a lantern in one hand and a gun in the other. The animal visited his chicken coop about 2 a.m. last Wednesday morning and devoured one spring chicken and was busy on a second when the commotion awakened Mr. Burridge. He hurriedly lighted a lantern and seized his gun and with two shots both of which hit the target, killed the skunk.
Mr. Burridge left the task of disposing of the carcass to his son, who took a labor-saving and effective method of getting rid of it. He poked the dead skunk down a woodchuck's hole and filled the opening with earth. Just what happened to the woodchuck or groundhog is not known, but unless it proved a second victim it likely vacated the premises.

The other unique event had to do with the fate of a mouse. Mrs. John Gifford, who lives on the Deloro Road, was bothered with mice and set a trap in the pantry. The mouse was caught in the trap, but when Mrs. Gifford heard a disturbance in the pantry and went to investigate, she found a large spotted adder had also got in in some way and seized the mouse by the head and was trying to draw it out of the trap. With the horror of a snake, natural to most women, Mrs. Gifford called her neighbor, Mr. James Murphy, to her assistance. When they entered the pantry the snake was coiled around the trap with the mouse's head still in its mouth. Mr. Murphy secured a pail of water and succeeded in tumbling snake, trap and mouse into the water. The adder released its hold and was killed by Mr. Murphy. It was found to measure 43 inches in length.

(Added note: The "adder" referred to was probably the Eastern Hog-nosed Snake, often mistakenly referred to as a Cobra or a Puff Adder, though neither of these venomous species occur in Canada. The hog-nosed snake is harmless to humans.)