REPTILES IN CAPTIVITY 179 
dealing with large prey I have no doubt that a full-grown 
Borneo python could easily swallow a man. Any snake of 
from eighteen to twenty feet long is strong enough to squeeze 
a man to death if only it can get him properly encircled in its 
coils. 
Some years ago a controversy was started in the English 
newspapers as to what length snakes might run to. It was 
alleged that there were kinds which reached thirty or forty 
feet, and one traveller offered to produce one in support of his 
statement if anybody would pay 4500 for it. As I happened 
to know that the largest snake ever seen was only twenty- 
six feet long, I thought I was justified in entering into 
this controversy; and through the agency of my English 
friends I offered not £500 but £1,000 to any one who should 
bring to Hamburg a live and healthy snake thirty feet long. 
Up to the present time no such snake has arrived. 
The voracity of snakes is quite extraordinary. Until 
lately I had been accustomed to feed these creatures on fairly 
small animals, but a short time ago I gave to one of my 
Borneo giants a Chinese dwarf hog weighing fully fifty 
pounds, and this was demolished by the serpent in three- 
quarters of an . 
hour. Soon after 
I had a further 
exhibition of the 
gastronomic ca- 
pacity of snakes. 
On this occasion 
the creature was 
an extremely 
large one, about 
twenty-five feet 
long. I gavehim 
a goat weigh- 
ing thirty - one ae 
pounds which I thought would provide him with a pretty hearty 
12 
After dinner. 
