484 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



vipers during the period followiug, unless it miglit be assumed that 

 the preiiiiuni had ah'eady effected a diminution of the viijers as early 

 as 18()7, which is, of course, barely possible. We would now be pre- 

 l)ared for a constant decrease in the number of vipers killed yearly 

 from 1879 on, but on the contrary, in 1880 the figures jump to 15,000, 

 and with the exception of the years affected by the reduction of the 

 prennum, the number of alleged vipers killed is steadily increasing, 

 until in 1880 it reaches the astounding number of 67,G20! 



At what rate must the vipers of Haute-Saoue have been nuiltiplyiug 

 since 1880! And this is what Prof. Kautinann considers a successful 

 system. 



The conclusion seems irresistible that the functionaries paying the 

 bounty have either made false returns and pocketed the money, or else 

 that they have paid for every snake brought in whether i^oisonous or not. 

 The latter supposition would be the more disastrous one to the county, 

 because of the enormous number of useful species that must have 

 perished. One only wonders if a single snake is left in Haute-Saoue. 



But whichever of the two suppositions is the correct one, this case 

 corroborates only the experience which has been had everywhere that 

 bounties, as a rule, are failures where a nice discrimination has to be 

 made by the xiremiuni-paying functionary, and that it very often leads 

 to fraud both on the side of this otticial and on that of the bounty 

 hunter. 



