SNAKES 335 



that they should ever manage to get down. The 

 spectacle that presents itself in such cases is a very 

 curious one (Plate XXI.). Of the two animals 

 the snake would certainly seem to be the object 

 for greatest pity. His victim, after the momentary 

 struggle and outcry attending seizure, seems to be 

 quite resigned to fate, and sits quietly down, to gaze 

 passively around whilst his hind-quarters are engulfed 

 in the jaws and throat of his captor. Meanwhile the 

 latter is suffering astonishing deformation. The jaws 

 are forced widely apart, and the distension of the 

 neighbouring soft parts is so excessive that the 

 individual scales clothing them are separated by 

 bands of skin and other tissues spread out into 

 bluish, translucent membranes. The general effect 

 presented by the two animals is that of some 

 strange monster with a long slender tail, and a 

 huge head with staring eyes supported on a pair 

 of short, crooked legs. Should the victim be 

 forcibly extracted even at a very early period, it 

 will be found that the compressed portion of the 

 body and the hind limbs is completely paralysed. 

 It might seem as though the pressure to which 

 they had been exposed ought not to have given 

 rise to more injury than the corresponding distension 

 which must have occurred in the tissues of the 

 snake, but, whilst the latter causes mere temporary 

 inconvenience, the former serves, as a rule, to induce 

 death, even when it has not been of long duration. 



