

CHAr. vt. A LARGE SNAKE. 137 



eyes were fixed upon us, and his forked tongue played 

 in and out of his mouth with a continued hiss. Aiming 

 at his head, I fired at him with a double-barrelled gun, 

 within four paces, and blew his head to pieces. He 

 appeared stone dead ; but upon pulling him by the 

 tail, to stretch him out at full length, he wreathed him- 

 self in convulsive coils, and lashing himself out in 

 full length, he mowed down the high grass in all 

 directions. This obliged me to stand clear, as his 

 blows were terrific, and the thickest part of his body 

 was as large as a man's thigh. I at length thought 

 of an expedient for securing him. Cutting some 

 sharp-pointed stakes, I waited till he was again 

 quiet, when I suddenly pinned his tail to the ground 

 with my hunting-knife, and thrusting the pointed 

 stake into the hole, I drove it deeply into the ground 

 with the butt end of my rifle. The boa made 

 some objection to this, and again he commenced his 

 former muscular contortions. I waited till they were 

 over, and having provided myself with some tough 

 jungle rope (a species of creeper), I once more ap- 

 proached him, and pinning his throat to the ground 

 with a stake, I tied the rope through the incision, and 

 the united exertions of myself and three men hauled 

 him out perfectly straight. I then drove a stake firmly 

 through his throat and pinned him out. He was 

 fifteen feet in length, and it required our united 

 strength to tear off his skin, which shone with a variety 



