THE VICTOBIAN NATURALIST 29 



may be in a weak condition from confinement or other causes. A 

 bite from a Tiger snake in full vigour is generally fatal, and the 

 cases or cure recorded are probably due to some one of the above 

 mitigating circumstances. !N"o absolute antidote is known, although 

 there are several so-called. Spirits taken internally, aid the system 

 to throw off the depressing effects of the poison. But the most 

 powerful stimulant in cases of snake bite is the strong solution of 

 ammonia injected into the veins, as suggested first by Professor 

 Halford of the Melbourne University. Its effects in cases of collapse 

 are most marked, but it depends upon the amount and virulence of 

 the venom injected whether the remedy be successful or not. If the 

 wound is scarified and sucked at once, and a tight ligature applied 

 to the limb, a certain amount of the poison may be abstracted, and 

 so less remain to be contended with. But it often happens, spite 

 of all remedies, that the poison acts rapidly and fatally. 



Snakes progress chiefly by mean^ of their ribs, which move iu^ 

 wave-like motions. When travelling fast through grass aiid fern, 

 they shoot onward with rapid " serpentine" motion, forcing them- 

 selves along by any solid that may be convenient. When they 

 climb up against glass, &c., they seem to create a vacuum with their 

 ventral scales. They will almost invariably ti-y to escape if anyone 

 approaches, and very seldom attack wlien unprovoked. The i'iger 

 £:nake is the most pugnacious of Victorian species. Some snakes, 

 especially the Black Snake, cover tlie ground at an amazing pace, so 

 that the eye can scarcely follow the movements. The Death-adder 

 is the slowest of all. 



Snakes are very fond of water, niiu liave the faculty of reniaining 

 beneath the surface for a lengthened time. A gentleman recently 

 told me that when bathing in the Goulburn River, he saw a snake 

 coiled up on the sand, about a foot under water, where he was just 

 about to step, with its head erect and glistening eyes fixed on his 

 foot, which in another instant it would have bitten. 'I'hey swim 

 gracefully and swiftly, with the head and several inches of the body 

 abo\e water. 



Our snakes have their natural foes. A relative of mine told me 

 that he was riding on his run one evening some years ago, when he 

 suddenly saw a laughing jackass swoop down from a large gum tree 

 on to the ground, and in a moment the bird ascended with a snake, 

 ajiparently between two and three feet in lengtli, in its powerful beak. 

 It flew to a considerable height and then dropped its victim, and 

 reaching the ground nearly as quickly as the snake, immediately 

 seized and took it up again, repeating the same process several 

 times, until the snake was either killed or sufficiently disabled to 

 enable the bird to kill and eat it. Pigs are also great enemies to 

 snakes, and often destroy and eat them. 



