540 SNAKES. 



that may ensure success among the natives. Probably 

 many a bitten person, if alone in the desert, dies, and there 

 are none to record his death. Nevertheless we have good 

 reason for believing that the natives do learn how to manage 

 deadly snakes or to avoid them. In South Africa it is very 

 rare to hear of a person dying of snake-bite ; and the natives 

 go bare-footed there as much as in India. Some of the 

 deadliest serpents also are found in Africa. In Australia, 

 where there is a still larger majority of poisonous snakes 

 (more than two-thirds of the whole number), and also bare- 

 footed natives, deaths are comparatively infrequent. Krefft 

 gives us a list which may be of interest to the residents 

 there, viz. the proportions of the venomous to the harmless 

 species of snakes : — 



Venomous. Harmless. 



New South Wales, . . .21 out of 30 



Victoria, . 

 South Australia, 

 West Australia, . 

 Queensland, 



8 „ 12 



13 » 15 



II » 15 



28 „ 42 



Whereas in India, including Ceylon, the venomous families 

 are five to the thirty-five innocuous ones. In India alone 

 Giinther describes twenty families of snakes, out of which 

 four only are venomous. When, therefore, we read the 

 annual statistics of India, and the enormous death-rate, which 

 suggest resolutions towards the extermination of snakes, we 

 may again hint that education must join hands with science in 

 order to find remedies. Europeans are seldom bitten ; you 

 might count the numbers on your fingers in as many years. 

 Dr. Edward Nicholson has shown that while in twelve 



