THE SNAKE THAT SWALLOWED THE HORSE. In 

 the province of Gozar, Dr. Gardner came to the 

 fazendo of Sape, situated at the foot of the Serra 

 de Santa Brida, near the entrance to a small 

 valley. Dr. Gardner remarked, that in this val- 

 ley, and thi'oughout this province, the anaconda 

 attains an enormous size, sometimes reaching 

 forty feet in length; the "largest which he saw 

 measured thirty-seven feet, but was not alive. 

 It had been taken under the following circum- 

 stances : Some weeks before our arrival at Sape, 

 writes Dr. Gardner, the favorite riding horse of 

 Senhor Logoeira, which had been put out to pas- 

 ture not far from the house, could not be found, 

 although strict search had been made for it all 

 over the fazenda. Shortly after this, one of his 

 vaqueiros (herdsmen), in going through the 

 wood by the side of a small stream, saw an enor- 

 mous sucuruju suspended in the fork of a tree 

 which hung over the water. It was dead, but 

 had evidently been floated down alive by a recent 

 flood, and being in an inert state, it had not been 

 able to extricate itself from the fork before the 

 waters fell. It was dragged out to the open 

 country by two horses, and was found to meas- 

 ure thirty-seven feet in length. On opening it, 

 the bones of a horse in a somewhat broken con- 

 dition, and the flesh in a half digested state, 

 were found with it ; the bones of the head were 

 uninjured. From these circumstances, we con- 

 cluded that the boa had swallowed the horse 

 entire. In all kinds of snakes, the capacity for 

 swallowing is prodigious. I have often seen one 

 not thicker than my thumb swallow a frog as 

 large as my fist ; and I once killed a rattlesnake 

 four feet long, and of no great thickness, which 

 had swallowed no less than three large frogs. I 

 have also seen a very slender snake that fre- 

 quents the roofs of houses, swallow an entire bat 

 three times its own thickness. If such be the 

 case with these smaller kinds, it is not to be 

 wondered at that one thirty-seven feet long 

 should be able to swallow a horse, particularly 

 when it is known that previously to doing so, it 

 breaks the bones of the animal by coiling itself 

 around it, and afterwards lubricates it with a 

 slimy matter, which it has the power of secreting 

 in its mouth. Brazil and the Brazilians. 



. WHAT nvF. MAT* HAS DONE. 



WALLED LAKE IN IOWA. A correspondent of The ^ 

 Cincinnati Gazette gives an account of a walled lake 

 in Wright County, Iowa. He says: 



" To me it was one of the greatest curiosities I had 

 ever seen enveloped as its history is with a mantle 

 that will probably never be withdrawn. This lake 

 lies in the midst of a vast plain the rich, gently un- 

 dulating prairie extending for many miles in every di- 

 rection. The lake covers an area of 'about 1,900 

 acres. The water is clear and cold, with a hard, 

 sandy bottom, from two to twenty-five feet deep. 

 There is a strip of timber about half way round it, 

 probably ten rods wide, being the only timber in many 

 miles. There is a wall of heavy stone all rouitd it. 



" It is no accidental matter. It has been built with 

 human hands. In some places the land is higher tha* ^ 

 the lake, in which case the wall only amounts to 

 something like a rip-rap protection. This, I believe, 

 is what engineers call it. But in other places the 

 water is higner in the lake thaii the prairie outside of 

 the wall. The wall in some places is ten feet high; it 

 is thirteen feet wide at the base, sloping up both sides 

 to five feet wide on the top. The wall is built entirely 

 of boulders, from three tuns in size down to fifty 

 pounds. They a$e all what are called lost rock. I 

 am no geologist, aad consequently can give no learned 

 description of t^em. They are not, however, natives, 

 ' to the manor born.' Nor has the wall been made by 

 the washing away of the earth, and leaving the rocks. 

 There is no native rock in this region. Besides, this 

 continuous wall, two miles of which, at leagt, is 

 er than the land. The top of the wall is level, 

 while the land is undulating eo the wall is in some 

 places two feet, and in others ten feet high. These 

 rocks, many of them at least, must have been brought 

 a long distance probably five or ten miles. In Wright 

 County the best rocks are scattered pretty freely, but 

 as you approach this lake they disappear, showing 

 that they nave been gathered by some agency when 

 or by whom history w ill never unfold. Some of the 

 largest oaks in the grove are growing up through the 

 wall, pushing the rocke in, in some cases, outside in 

 others, accommodating their shape to the rocks. The 

 lake abounds with excellent fish. The land in that 

 township yet belongs ta the Government. 



IOWA. The following comparison of the taxable 

 property of Iowa for the laet seven years is given as 

 an indication of the progress she is making in wealth : 



InlSSlit wa $28,464,550 1 In 1855 it was $106,895,390 



In 1852 it wa*. 38, 427.376 Jin 1656 it wan 164,394,413 



In IMG it WB 49,540,3041 In J8S7 5t wae 210,044,533 



In 1M4 it wan. 72,327,204 J 



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