THE COUNACUTCHI 315 



loot of the fang also presses against the bag and sends up a 

 [>ortion of the poison it contained. The fangs being extremely 

 movable, can be voluntarily depressed or elevated ; and as from 

 t heir brittleness they are very liable to break, nature, to provide 

 for a loss that would be fatal, has added behind each of them 

 smaller or subsidiary fangs ready to take their place in case of 

 accident. 



Unrivalled in the display of every lovely colour of the rain- 

 1)0W, and unmatched in the effects of his deadly poison, the bush- 

 master or counacutchi {Lachesis rhombeata) glides on, sole 

 monarch of the forests of Guiana or Brazil, as both man and 

 1 least fly before him. In size he surpasses most other venomous 

 species, as he sometimes grows to the length of fourteen feet, 

 (ienerally concealed among the fallen leaves of the forest, he 

 lives on small birds, reptiles, and mammalians, whom he is able 

 to pursue with surprising activity. Thus, Schomburgk once 

 saw an opossum rushing through the forest, and closely followed 

 by an enormous bush-master. Frightened to death and utterly 

 exhausted, the panting animal ascended the stump of an old 

 tree, and thence, as if rooted to the spot, looked with staring 

 eyes on its enemy, who, rolled in a spiral coil, from which his 

 head rose higher and higher, slowly and leisurely, as if conscious 

 that his prey could not possibly escape him, prepared for his 

 (l(3adly spring. This time, however, the bush-master was mis- 

 taken, for a shot from Schomburgk's rifle laid him writhing in 

 tlie dust, while the opossum, saved by a miracle, ran ofl" as fast 

 as he could. Fortunately for the planter and negroes, the bush- 

 master is a rare serpent, frequenting only the deepest shades 

 of the thicket, where in the day-time he generally lies coiled 

 upon the ground. 



Still rarer, though if possible yet more formidable, is a small 

 brown viper {Echidna ocellata), which infests the Peruvian 

 forests. Its bite is said to be able to kill a strong man within 

 two or three minutes. The Indian, when bitten by it, does 

 not even attempt an antidote against the poison, but stoically 

 bids adieu to his comrades, and lays himself down to die. 



The ill-famed wide-extended race of the rattlesnakes, which 

 ranges from South Brazil to Canada, belongs exclusively to the 

 new world. They prefer the more elevated, dry, and stony 

 regions, where they lie coiled up in the thorny bushes, and only 



