THE ROOSEVELT EXPEDITION 195 



numerous palatial buildings, though some of them are too 

 ornate to appeal to North American taste, and gold-leaf 

 and carved marble have been used lavishly in their decora- 

 tion. The public squares, filled with the finest of tropical 

 trees and plants, give a park-like appearance to at least parts 

 of the city. 



Of interest to the tourist, perhaps, are the numerous 

 curio-shops filled with a varied assortment of almost every- 

 thing ranging from minute, brilliantly hued beetles, to 

 feather flowers and the skins of anacondas. Brazil is of 

 course popularly believed to be the land of huge snakes; 

 one dealer calmly told us that he frequently had skins forty 

 metres long, but the longest he happened to possess measured 

 less than twenty feet in length. The number of stories in 

 common circulation concerning serpents of monstrous pro- 

 portions in South American countries, is astonishing; and 

 it was interesting to note that the farther south we went, 

 the longer the reptiles grew. 



Thus, in Barranquilla, near the Caribbean coast of Co- 

 lombia, I was told that specimens thirty feet long w r ere to 

 be had frequently; this did not seem quite probable. In 

 Venezuela thirty-five feet was not considered unusual, and 

 I was sorry that none were to be obtained during my visit. 

 In British Guiana, snakes forty feet long were said to be 

 fairly common, although I could find no one who had ac- 

 tually seen one of that size. The climax was reached in 

 Rio de Janeiro, when a curio-dealer told about the forty- 

 metre snakes. I frankly expressed my doubts, and he pro- 

 ceeded to tell of how a man standing beside a snake of this 

 size, that was coiled up, could not look over the top of it — 

 it was such a great heap. 



It must be admitted that Brazil with its great Amazon 

 basin produces many strange and unusual creatures; but 

 when it comes to one-hundred-foot snakes, it can only be 

 said that there is absolutely no proof of their existence. 

 No dealer I ever visited, and there were many, could ever 

 produce a skin over tw r enty feet long. 



