Seen and Lost. 375 
tion was scorched and dead, and dry as ashes. The 
eround being so favourable, I crossed this low 
plain at a swinging gallop, and in about thirty 
minutes’ time. In that half-hcur I saw a vast 
number of snakes, all of one ‘ind, and a species 
new to me; but my anxiety to reach my destina- 
tion before the oppressive heat of the afternoon 
made me hurry on. So numerous were the snakes 
in that green place that frequently I had as many 
as a dozen in sight at one time. It looked to me 
like a coronella—harmless colubrine snakes—but 
was more than twice as large as either of the two 
species of that genus I was already familiar with. 
In size they varied greatly, ranging from two to 
fully five feet in length, and the colour was dull 
yellow or tan, shghtly lined and mottled with shades 
of brown. Among dead or partially withered grass 
and herbage they would have been undistinguishable 
at even a very short distance, but on the vivid 
green turf they were strangely conspicuous, some 
being plainly visible forty or fifty yards away ; and 
not one was seen coiled up. They were all lying 
motionless, stretched out full length, and looking 
like dark yellow or tan-coloured ribbons, thrown on 
to the grass. It was most unusual to see so many 
snakes together, although not surprising in the cir- 
cumstances. The December heats had dried up all 
the watercourses and killed the vegetation, and 
made the earth hard and harsh as burnt bricks; and 
at such times snakes, especially the more active non- 
venomous kinds, will travel long distances, in their 
slow way, in search of water. Those I saw during 
my ride had probably been attracted by the mois- 
