JUMBO-JOCKO AND THE COCKERRICOS. 83 



when I happened to bethink me that these rascals 

 usually hunt in pairs, and that perhaps the mate of 

 the murdered serpent was waiting near to take re- 

 venge. So I cut a bamboo pole and drew the slimy 

 carcase out, using a great deal of caution, until at last 

 it lay before me, glistening in the sun. 



Then I measured it and found it to be fourteen 

 feet in length, or more than twice the height, if held 

 upright, of an ordinary man. I have heard of boa 

 constrictors of a length of thirty feet, but this one 

 of fourteen was the largest that 1 ever killed. 



Although I have hunted through many a stretch 

 of tropic forest, in Mexico and the West Indies, where 

 serpents of many kinds are numerous, yet I have 

 never entirely overcome my dread of the horrid rep- 

 tiles. There are two kinds of serpents to be avoided 

 — the boa, which kills its victims by crushing them 

 between its folds, and the poisonous snake, which in- 

 flicts death with its fangs. There is little danger from 

 the boas, since they are not often met with in the 

 West Indies more than large enough to crush and 

 swallow a boy ; but from the poisonous serpents one 

 is always in dread of an attack. 



There is one kind in the islands of Martinique and 

 Saint Lucia called the fer de lance^ which is not only 

 very poisonous but a fighter. Unlike the rattlesnake 

 and other serpents, it will follow and attack human 

 beings. And as it is very large, and injects into the 

 veins of its victims three times the amount of venom 

 that the ordinary serpent does, the effect of its bite is 

 almost instant death. It haunts the sugar-cane fields, 



