CHAPTER XIII 



INTERESTING AFRICAN REPTILES 



FROM the reader's standpoint a book on 

 African travel or African animals might 

 seem incomplete without a chapter on 

 snakes, yet, after reading these few lines, if you 

 feel disappointed, please do not blame me. I 

 have tried my best to make an interesting chap- 

 ter of a subject that to most people is "repul- 

 sively fascinating," but I may have failed for 

 lack of material. 



Snakes there are in Africa big, little, poison- 

 ous, and non-poisonous but not nearly so many 

 as is generally supposed. One may be able to 

 gain some idea of their abundance when I say 

 that our safari never numbered less than a hun- 

 dred porters and once reached three hundred 

 and sixty -five, and that, while every one of these 

 men was a collector of reptiles, our collection of 

 snakes at the end of eleven months did not 

 exceed a hundred specimens. In short, snakes 



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