184 OPHIDIA. — BOAD^. 



the sleeper, and was in the act of crushing him to 

 death, when his companions fortunately returned; 

 and attacking the monster, severed a portion of 

 its tail, which so disabled it that it no longer re- 

 tained the power of doing mischief. The Snake 

 was then easily despatched, and was found to 

 measure sixty -two feet and some inches in length. 

 Mr. M'Leod, whose interesting account of a 

 Python seizing its prey we have quoted at length, 

 acids, that at Whidah on the coast of Africa, he 

 has had opportunities of observing Pythons more 

 than double the size of the specimen he has de- 

 scribed, which were capable of swallowing animals 

 much larger than goats or sheep. " Governor 

 Abson, who had for thirty-seven years resided at 

 Fort William (one of the African Company's set- 

 tlements there), described some desperate strug- 

 gles which he had either seen or had come to his 

 knowledge, between the Snakes and wild beasts, 

 as well as the smaller cattle, in which the former 

 w^ere always victorious. A negro herdsman be- 

 longing to Mr. Abson (who afterwards limped for 

 many years about the fort) had been seized by 

 one of these monsters by the thigh ; but from his 

 situation in a wood, the Serpent, in attempting to 

 throw himself around him, got entangled with a 

 tree ; and the man, being thus preserved from a 

 state of compression which would instantly have 

 rendered him quite powerless, had presence of 

 mind enough to cut with a large knife, which he 

 carried with him, deep gashes in the neck and 

 throat of his antagonist, thereby killing him, and 

 disengaging himself from his frightful situation. 

 He never afterwards, however, recovered the use 

 of that limb, which had sustained considerable 



