52 " TEIGONOCEPHALUS LANCEOLATUS?' 



snakes, with one exception, before reaching the summit. 

 This one reached the point, and had time to wave the Union 

 Jack aloft, when he too was severely bitten, and died there. 



In 1878, however, one man scaled this dreadful Sugar-loaf; 

 but on his return he found so few to credit his story, that 

 the day following he made the ascent a second time, taking 

 with him a negro servant part of the way. He reached the 

 point and lighted a fire, stuck up the Union Jack as a proof 

 of his victory, and for six months it waved in the breeze, 

 no one daring afterwards to disbelieve his veracity. He 

 told me that on his way up he came to a high ledge which 

 he could only reach by mounting on his companion's 

 shoulders, and then drawing himself up by his hands and 

 elbows. When he had his elbows on the ledge and brought 

 his face to a level high enough to see over them, he was 

 rather alarmed at seeing a huge Fer-de-lance lying in wait, 

 within a few inches of his nose. He called for a cutlass, 

 which his servant handed him ; but by this time the reptile 

 had coiled itself ready for a spring, and was just about to 

 strike when the cutlass descended and cut it into several 

 pieces. The brave fellow put the head in his pocket and 

 went on his way. I saw the fangs, which were about 2|- 

 inches long, and on that journey alone he killed sixteen 

 snakes. 



Only on one other occasion have I heard of equal presence 

 of mind with a Fer-de-lance. This was in a Barbadian 

 negro, one of the most powerful and courageous fellows I 

 ever met. He, with some other labourers, was cutting 

 sugar-canes in a field apart from the rest, when suddenly 

 the cry of "Serpent!" rang out, and looking at his feet, 

 close beside him he saw a Fer-de-lance, over six feet long, 

 coiled ready for the fight. He was unarmed and lightly 

 clad, and recognised at once the fact that his only chance 



