[6] The South has also the venomous water-moccasin or cotton-mouth, and the poisonous but timid coral and harlequin-snakes. [7] Snakes in neighborhood of New York: Dangerous--Banded rattlesnake, copperhead. Harmless, can be domesticated--Black-snake, worm-snake, ringnecked-snake, black pilot-snake, green-snake, water-snake, brown-snake, hognosed-snake (adder), milk-snake, garter-snake, ribbon-snake. CHAPTER IV. A BACK-YARD FISH-POND. Although the writer has made frequent journeys to the wonderful dreamland of his boyhood, and has ruthlessly taken and brought to earth many of its air-castles for the use of the boys of the present day, there are still a number of things left, and among the latter is the back-yard fish-pond, which we shall now seize, and, bringing the idea down to your back-yard, make it water-tight, so that you can stock it with real live fish. A Shallow Pond, with a broad surface exposed to the air will support, in health many more inhabitants than a deep hole, with small exposed surface. Remember that it is easier to keep a fish alive in a shallow basin than it is in a bottle holding exactly the same amount of water. If You Dig a Hole in your yard and fill it with water, it will be a mud-hole, in which no self-respecting fish will live: besides which the soil will soon soak up the water and leave the mud to bake in the hot summer sun. By Sinking a Wooden Tank in the ground and filling it with water a pond may be made. But any old box will not answer, for, unless you are a much better mechanic than the writer was at your age, you will not be able to prevent an ordinary box from leaking. However, if you really want a back-yard fish-pond, you may make a box or tank which will hold water, and the [Illustration: The Back-yard Fish Pond.] Best Form for Such a Tank is that of a wide, flat-bottomed scow. This scow may be of any dimensions you choose to build it, but I would advise you to make your first one not more than six feet long by four feet wide, and two feet deep. [Illustration: FIGS. 27 and 28.--The Side-boards must be Duplicates.] In selecting lumber for the scow, pick out pieces which are comparatively free from knots or blemishes. Reserve two one-and-a-half-inch planks, and keep the half-inch boards for the bottom. A saw, a plane, and a sharp hatchet are necessary, but other tools, if not absolutely needed, should not on that account be ignored, as they may come in very handy at times. Trim off your two side-boards to exactly the same length--say six feet; they should then be six feet by two feet. On the edge which is to be the bottom measure toward the centre from each end of each board two feet, and mark the points; then rule a line diagonally from each of these points to the corners of the boards on the upper edge; this will mark out a sort of double-ended sled-runner, as shown in the illustrations, and when you saw off the triangular pieces marked on the boards you will have Two Runners.