100 PARA. Chap. III. 



not far from my door. He had cut it nearly in two 

 with a large knife, as it was making its way down the 

 sandy street. Sometimes the native hunters capture 

 boa-constrictors alive in the forest near the city. We 

 bought one which had been taken in this way, and kept 

 it for some time in a large box under our verandah. 

 This is not, however, the largest or most formidable 

 serpent found in the Amazons region. It is far inferior, 

 in these respects, to the hideous Sucurujti, or Water 

 Boa (Eunectes murinus), which sometimes attacks man ; 

 but of this I shall have to give an account in a subse- 

 quent chapter. 



It frequently happened, in passing through the 

 thickets, that a snake would fall from the boughs close 

 to me. Once I got for a few moments completely en- 

 tangled in the folds of one, a wonderfully slender kind, 

 being nearly six feet in length, and not more than half 

 an inch in diameter at its broadest part. It was a 

 species of Dryophis. The majority of the snakes seen 

 were innocuous. One day, however, I trod on the tail 

 of a young serpent belonging to a very poisonous kind, 

 the Jararaca (Craspedocephalus atrox). It turned 

 round and bit my trousers ; and a young Indian lad, who 

 was behind me, dexterously cut it through with his 

 knife before it had time to free itself In some seasons 

 snakes are very abundant, and it often stnick me as 

 strange that accidents did not occur more frequently 

 than was the case. 



Amongst the most curious snakes found here were 

 the AmphisbsBnae, a genus allied to the slow-worm of 

 Europe. Several species occur at Para. Those brought 



