50 '^ TRIGONOCEPHALUS LANCEOLATUS." 



horses and having lunch in a shady place about 3,600 feet 

 above the sea, had commenced our descent by an extra- 

 ordinary zig-zag path on the windward side, when we were 

 compelled to halt to admire a view, the grandeur of which 

 is unsurpassed. At our feet lay a magnificent, undulating 

 plain, twenty miles broad and half as many long, studded 

 with huge forest trees and clad in all the gorgeous verdure 

 of the tropics. Down one side of the mountain ridge was 

 the zig-zag road made by the French government before 

 our queen's father captured the island, and from our posi- 

 tion it looked like a long ladder, down the steps of which it 

 would be comparatively easy to jump. The exquisitely blue 

 waters of the Caribbean Sea, the lovely green islands of 

 Martinique and Dominica in the distance, all combined, 

 made up a picture which it would take no mean artist to 

 portray ; but in the middle of our reverie on the beauties 

 of nature in the tropics, we were suddenly recalled to a 

 sense of the present by our negro servant in our rear call- 

 ing out in French, " Prenez garde, Messieurs ! Serpent ! 

 serpent ! " My companion wheeled his horse round and 

 struck with his long riding whip at the venomous reptile 

 that, having been alarmed by the negro, was making to- 

 wards us in all haste. The lash merely irritated it, and it 

 bit furiously ; but not having coiled itself for the spring, it 

 was rather helpless, and so we lashed it until our faithful 

 attendant had time to procure a good thick stick, with 

 which he ended the conflict. It was only a small one, 3^- 

 feet long, and with fangs about an inch in length. Similar 

 experiences make travellers wary, and they seldom go on 

 lonely roads unattended. 



And now comes the inquiry. How is it that the venomous 

 Fer-de-lance, with its French name, exists only in the colo- 

 nies of Martinique and St. Lucia, and in none of the adjacent 



