94 WILD LIFE UNDER THE HQUATOR. 
quantity of fresh water coming iD the interior was car- 
ried by it into the sea. 7 
The atmosphere was hazy, Re as is generally the 
case in those equatorial regions, I could see the vapor 
arising and quivering as it ascended. 
At last we entered a narrow creek, where the current 
was not so strong. We had hardly proceeded two 
or three miles when snakes became quite abundant in 
the water. We were in the Creek of Snakes. I do not 
know what else to call it. 
What a horrid sight! They were of all colors and 
sizes: some were small and slender, others short and 
thick. One peculiar kind struck me at once as one that 
I had never seen before. It swam not far from our ca- 
noe, and appeared to be of a bright orange-yellow color. 
I am sure it was a very venomous one, one whose bite 
_would kill a man in less than five minutes, for the head 
was very triangular. Then came a large black one with 
a yellow stripe on the belly ; it appeared to me to be ten 
feet long; the black shone as if it had been oiled. . This 
fellow I also knew to be very poisonous; so when he 
raised his head above the water I sent a load of small 
shot into it, literally crushing it to pieces. Then we went 
immediately at him, and with a few strokes of the pad- 
dles we finished him up. I was going to make off, 
when two of the slaves who were of our party said we 
must put it in our canoe, and that they should eat the 
fellow in the evening. This created a great laugh from 
my Commi boys, and after making sure that the loath- 
some creature was dead we fished him out of the water. 
There was at first a jumping about of the men which I 
was afraid would upset the canoe, in which case we 
