107 



flimsy boxes, containing fourteen large, living snakes, five of 

 them the deadly Rattler. Under Rule II, as published in your 

 General Circular No. 2, "such animals arriving in the Terri- 

 tory of Hawaii are ordered to be immediately destroyed or 

 deported." In order that there should be no hitch in the pro- 

 ceedings, I took the precaution and telephoned to ]Mr. W. A. 

 Bryan, who is Federal Inspector of wild animals. He came to 

 the dock and after discussing the matter with Collector of 

 Customs E. R. Stackable and Territorial Commissioners of 

 Agriculture and Forestry, L. A. Thurston and Alfred W. Car- 

 ter, he informed us that he would refuse to issue a permit to 

 land the snakes. The reptiles were intended for exhibition 

 and in order that there should be no question about the pro- 

 ceedings, the three above named gentlemen made a proposi- 

 tion to the importer to pay him the purchase cost of the snakes 

 and then they would take possession of them. This was a 

 generous act on their part in order to keep the Islands free 

 from such a curse, but they should not have been put to that 

 expense by the blunder of another person that should have 

 been and was, undoubtedly, aware of the Federal and Terri- 

 torial laws relating to the introduction of animals. In the 

 destruction of the snakes we had a surprising experience. I 

 placed the boxes of snakes in one of our fumigating chambu.^ 

 and applied a charge of double density of hydrocyanic acid 

 gas and the snakes were still alive at the end of fifteen minutes, 

 whereas, if they had been warm blooded animals they would 

 have succumbed in a less number of seconds. They were again 

 shut up and a quadruple charge of that deadly gas was ad- 

 ministered and at the end of one hour and a half the fumigator 

 was opened and several of the snakes still showed signs of life. 

 We then immersed them in 95% of alcohol and that soon put 

 an end to their venomous existence. A fitting death, as the 

 same liquid — in a modified form — is considered an antidote to 

 their deadly bite. 



I wrote to the Hon. James Wilson, United States Secretary 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, giving him a full account 



