The fact that the snake was hissing makes me think it was an Eastern Hognose Snake (they are harmless but put on a very threatening and convincing show). Hognose Snakes are fat bodied snakes and they come in a wide range of colors and patterns inlucing the dull black you describe. They hiss and often also spread their head kind of like a cobra when alarmed.

Cottonmouths do also match the physical description of the snake you describe, but the hissing behavior does not fit them very well. They do definitely gape their mouths open and show the white interior but this is a silent display unless they are also shaking their tail in leaves which makes for a hissing like sound (many species including cottonmouths and hognose snakes can shake their tails).

I would lean hognose snake based on the hissing behavior combined with the description, especially if it was a long prolonged drawn out hiss accompanied with flaring of the head.

To play it safe I wouldn't rule out cottonmouth entirely..especially if it gaped its mouth open for a long time and kept it open.

I guess because you said you heard the hissing, I'd want to know whether you are sure it was hissing and not tail shaking that sounded like hissing.

Thank you Wayne.I hope you are right.After researching the hognose snake and learning it leaves a odor I tend to believe maybe it was this kind of snake.Obviously there is a odor in the area it was at as my dog keeps smelling the ground there.Thanks.Debbie

Debbie, dogs have a fantastic sense of smell! I once found a snakeskin and decided to test my dog to see if he could find it. He's part Jack Russell Terrorist (known as Toby the Terrible!) and part Lab. Yes, you read that right. :)

Anyway, when I found the snakes skin, I tied a string around it and dragged it, in a sort of "snakey" pattern, across my kitchen floor, behind the table, and then left it behind the sofa. When Toby came in about an hour later, he immediately picked up the scent that the snake skin must have left and followed the scent trail to where the skin was left behind the sofa. It was so funny watching him, with his hackles up and sniffing frantically. When he found it, he started barking at the "snake" and going toward it, backing up, etc. until he finally went in for the "kill." I as amazed. After he tore the snake skin up, I started to vacuum up the pieces, but then thought that it'd waft the snake smell all over the house (I couldn't smell anything but Toby could) and he'd always be looking for a snake, or attacking the vacuum cleaner!

Sorry I can't be of much help about the snake. I find them fascinating and am quite dejected that we don't see any on our property, only the occasional black snake dead on the road. We have a small meadow, some woods, some debris from my hubby's shed-building project, and aren't too far from a creek, so I would think that snakes would be around. Maybe Toby the Terrible scares them off!

Julie
http://InMyMeadow.blogspot.com