1004 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



The nsnal swelling had disappeared bnt his thumb was quite black, the ball 

 being filled to bursting, with decomposed blood. He had never thought of 

 lancing it. I did this and the permanganate of potash did the rest. 

 His thumb was saved, but it looked very like: mortification when I first 

 saw it. 



I made many inquiries, but never heard of a fatal result from a bite. The 

 permanganate of potash treatment certainly had good results. The natives 

 soon recognized this, evcm my shikari, who started by laughing at it, but ail 

 the same, was one of the many applicants for a supply of it, when I was 

 leaving Kashmir. 



The so-called Gunas or Ghanus of Kashmir is found at lower elevations as a 

 rule than the Pohur. It is a larger snake than the latter, of an ashy grey 

 colour, with 25 to 26 scales in the middle of the body. There is, in a 

 specimen I shot, some indistinct light brown markings at the back of the head. 

 The 13 or 14 central scales on the back are unmarked ; then comes a line of 

 the same Ight brown colour, on either side, all down the back and the scales 

 extending from these coloured lines to the ventral scales, some six in number 

 on either side, are all more or less marked with the same colour. All my speci- 

 mens were too much damaged for me to fix the identity of the snake with any 

 degree of certainty. A damaged skin, I possess, measui-es 'll inches in length. 

 The hrad is covered with small scales. As well as I can judge from Major 

 Wall's description I think the snake must be Vipera lebetina. The natives 

 declared that an old Gunas not Pnhur as stated by Colonel Unwin, grew hairs 

 on its head. I offered a large reward for a hairy specimen, but with no result 1 

 The natives state that the bite of a Gunus is generally fatal. I never came 

 across a case, but have no reason for doubting their word. 



L. L. FENTON. Lt.-Col. 

 N. Devon, 30th September 1909. 



No. XXX.— DO WILD ANIMALS DIE A NATURAL DEATH. 

 I was much interested in finding that Col. Evans has, on page 273 of 

 Vol. XIX of the Journal, taken up the question I started. But before 

 writing any further I would like to point out that in my letter which he 

 refers to I have not been dealt with quite fairly by the printer's devil. He has 

 put in stops which I do not think were in my letter and in one place he has 

 made me write "entirely Europeans, not the Natives of the jungles." 

 What I wrote was "not onhj Europeans, hut the Natives of the jungles," 

 which quite alters my letter as printed. My idea is that no wild 

 animal ever gets the chance of d3ing from old age, but is always killed off and 

 eaten by some other animal directly the powers that Nature has endowed him 

 with become impaired. Possibly disease carries them off, but if so what be- 

 .-omes of them, for dead animals are seldom met with, and in the case of such 

 as ire found, death is ordinarily due to some violence that has been met with. 

 I would have said in the absence of the instances given by Col. Evans, death 



