SNAKES IN RELATION TO MAN 137 



that efforts have been made to reduce their numbers. 

 The most efficacious means, besides the protection 

 of certain animals and birds which feed on Vipers, 

 appeared to be the institution of premiums to be 

 paid for the heads of the dangerous snakes. By 

 offering 2jd. per head, 500,000 Vipers (V. aspis) were 

 destroyed from 1864 to 1890 in three French depart- 

 ments, Haute-Saone, Doubs, and Jura, and in one 

 district (Chaumont) of the Haute-Marne 57,045 were 

 killed from 1856 to 1861 ; this gives an idea of the 

 extraordinary abundance of these snakes in some 

 parts of France. In the Puy-de-D6me the premium 

 was fixed for a time at 5d., and one man managed to 

 destroy in the course of seven years 9,175 Vipers 

 (V. berus and V. aspis). A woman in the Deux- 

 Sevres has made a living for many years by catching 

 Vipers, the heads of which were paid to her at the 

 rate of 5d. each. The average number of her cap- 

 tures amounted to 2,062 per annum (mostly V. aspis). 

 Around Oesnitz in Saxony, 2,140 V. berus were killed 

 in 1889, and 3,335 in 1890. In a single district in 

 Southern Styria the heads of 4,197 V. berus and 

 7,381 V. ammodytes were sent in for the reward in 

 the course of two years (1892, 1893). 



In spite of all this effort, the institution of the 

 bounty has not answered expectations, and, with 

 the exception of a few districts, Vipers remain as 

 plentiful as ever, showing what little man can do in 

 altering the equilibrium of Nature, except by inter- 



