172 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



sky ; there was scarcely a bird to be seen, for the 

 winged inhabitants of the forest, as though overcome 



by heat, had retired to the thickest shade : all 

 search of a would have been like midnight silence, were 



it not that the shrill voice of the pi-pi-yo 

 every now and then resounded from a distant tree. I 

 was sitting, with a little Horace in my hand, on what 

 had once been the steps which formerly led up to the 

 now mouldering and dismantled building. The negro 

 and his little dog came down the hill in haste, and I 

 was soon informed that a snake had been discovered ; 

 but it was a young one, called the Bush-master, a rare 

 and poisonous snake. 



I instantly rose up, and laying hold of the eight-foot 

 lance, which was close by me, "Well then, Daddy," 

 said I, " we'll go and have a look at the snake." I was 

 bare-foot, with an old hat, check shirt, and trowsers 

 on, and a pair of braces to keep them up. The negro 

 had his cutlass ; and as we ascended the hill, another 

 negro, armed with a cutlass, joined us, judging, from 

 our pace, that there was something to do. The little 

 dog came along with us ; and when we had got about 

 half a mile in the forest, the negro stopped, and pointed 

 to the fallen tree : all was still and silent. I told the 

 negroes not to stir from the place where they were, and 

 keep the little dog in, and that I would go in and 

 reconnoitre. 



I advanced up to the place, slow and cau- 



Finds and rm 



secures an tious. The snake was well concealed, but at 



enormous . . 



Couiacanara last 1 made him out ; it was a Coulacanara 

 not poisonous, but large enough to have 

 crushed any of us to death. On measuring him after- 

 wards, he was something more than fourteen feet long. 



