THE SIfAKE. 203 



thus probably saved his life. My remedy, if I had been 

 bitten, would have been to cut the wound till it bled 

 well, and put on it a charge of powder, and flash it off. 

 I thiuk this might have stayed the poison until I could 

 have reached medical assistance. Many carry a piece of 

 caustic; but the new remedy, I believe from India, 

 where it has been tried and found most efficacious, is 

 ipecacuanha. If bitten, score the wound with a penknife 

 till it bleeds, make a paste with a little ipecacuanha and 

 spittle, and bind it round the wound. Of course these 

 are only temporary remedies till medical assistance can 

 be obtained; but when we consider how liable any one 

 is to be bitten out here, it certainly would be prudent 

 for every one to carry a little ipecacuanha in his pocket, 

 even if he never wanted it. The Blacks have a remedy, 

 and no doubt it is herbal. 



The snakes here live always on and in the ground, 

 and not in trees, which, however, they can climb, for 

 they are not unfrequently found in a magpie's nest. I 

 was once standing quietly by a creek, watching for ducks, 

 on a summer's evening, when I heard a rustling in the 

 scrub, on the other side, and I saw a large carpet-snake, 

 swarming up a tea-tree pole, and presently another and 

 another, till I am certain there were at least a dozen 

 crawling up and down the poles at various heights. I 

 did not stop to see what they were about ; as the Yankees 

 say, I soon " made tracks back," for I fancied I must 

 have come upon a snake settlement. I believe there are 

 such places, where hundreds congregate in long grass 



