52 SNAKE AND FEOG. 



a difficulty; for if the stones fell too far from the 

 snake they had no effect, and if they fell on him they 

 might hurt him. 



To wait until the truant chose to move would 

 have been hopeless, for snakes are able to take so 

 much pure air into their lungs, and they require so 

 little of it for respiration, that the patience of the 

 boys would be exhausted long before the snake felt a 

 necessity for moving. 



Sometimes a snake would try to get away, and 

 insinuate his head and part of his body into a crevice; 

 in that case there was sad anxiety, and judicious 

 management was required to eliminate the reptile 

 without damage. It is a very difficult matter to drag 

 a snake backwards, because the creature sets up the 

 edges of the scales, and each one serves as a point of 

 resistance. So, when the snake is within a crevice, 

 where the scales of the back can act as well as those 

 of the belly, the difficulty is increased. 



When such an event took place, the best mode of 

 extracting the snake was to let it glide on, and so 

 lower its scales, and then to pluck it out with a 

 sudden jerk, before it had time to erect them afresh-. 

 But as often as otherwise, the snake got the better 

 in the struggle, and by slow degrees was lost to 

 view. 



Perhaps the pleasantest portion of snake-keeping 

 was the feeding. It was found that the snakes lost 

 their appetite, and would not eat, though frogs and 



