In an odd incident at the Livermore, California waterworks, fireman Peter Zabella stumbled upon a bizarre and unsettling discovery while attempting to fuel the furnace.
What initially seemed a frustrating challenge—shoveling a stubborn lump of coal—turned into a startling revelation when Zabella unearthed a live snake entangled within the coal.
A Queer Find – Snake Found Inside Coal
Peter Zabella, fireman at the waterworks at Livermore, California, while trying to shovel a lump of coal into the furnace made an astounding discovery.
The piece he desired to place in the furnace was by the side of a larger piece. He tried to pick up the smaller lump on his shovel. He succeeded in getting the lump on several times, but every time that he endeavored to toss the lump towards the furnace door it would roll off of the shovel and back to its original position, just as if there was a string tied to it.
Zabella made several ineffectual efforts to get the coal in the furnace but each time it seemed to snap back to its original position.
At last the man became frightened and came to the conclusion that the coal was bewitched.
Then he cooled down and began a systematic and eminently practical investigation.
He began working at the lump of coal with a crowbar. The crowbar settled the lump of coal and the creature that inhabited it in a very short time.
There was found imbedded in the larger lump of coal a snake. The reptile had coiled its tail around the smaller lump and that is what prevented Zabella from getting the small lump away from the larger one.
The snake was alive when taken out, but only lived a short time after being exposed to the air.
This fact makes those who inspected the curiosity hold to the belief that the reptile had been imbedded in the coal in the mine.
The hole in which it was found was too small at the opening to have allowed a snake of the size of the one discovered to have crawled in from the outside.
The men made careful measurements to satisfy themselves upon this, and all who saw it came to the conclusion that the reptile had been in the coal when it was mined.
Source: The Union. (St. George, Utah), 10 April 1897.
