172 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



than to render him partially blind for a few 

 hours. In speaking of these snakes Colonel 

 Roosevelt says: 



"One of the latter three times 'spat' or 

 ejected its poison at us, the poison coming from 

 the fangs like white films or threads to a dis- 

 tance of several feet." 



Personally, I saw about a dozen snakes, and 

 none of these was poisonous. Doctor Mearns, 

 while hunting one day, stepped over a large 

 puff-adder lying in the tall grass, and his gun 

 bearer was about to follow his example when 

 the snake was discovered and killed. It was a 

 very thick-set, stubby beast, with a bulldog-look- 

 ing head and had enormous fangs. At Gondokoro 

 one of our porters, while arranging his blankets, 

 was struck on the hand by what he supposed to 

 be a small adder. The doctor attended him at 

 once, so he suffered no severe results, being able 

 to go about his business the next day. 



Our party killed several pythons from ten 

 to thirteen feet long not much of a snake when 

 compared to the pythons of India, which attain 

 a lejigth little short of thirty feet. Like all of 

 these big snakes, they are not poisonous but 

 kill their prey by coiling about and crushing or 



