Science: Delayed Snakes

Seven snake eggs lay for seventy-seven years, sealed in a tree in Tullahoma, Tenn. Strong men came and split the tree, exposing an iron spike of the kind first used in the construction of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad in 1851. Around the spike was a decayed hole about five inches long, in which lay the tough, rubbery snake eggs. Having the good of Tullahoma at heart, down to the lowest snake, Mayor W. J. Davidson took the eggs to his heated office and gave them a place in the sun, atop his desk. Last week he noticed the box vibrating. He looked into it and found seven infant snakes crawling about, frisky and healthy after an incubation period of seventy-seven years. The seventy-seven years were calculated from the hand forged spike and by the rings of the tree.