56 THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 



Later he remarks that when the Government reward was raised 

 tentatively from six pies to two annas per head, 115,921 were paid 

 for in 8 days CDecember 2nd to 10th, 1862). Again Oandy in the 

 same Journal (page 85) says that in Ratnagiri, in August and 

 September, the Mhars go out with long sticks to which forks are 

 attached and catch them in thousands for Government rewards. It 

 is an inhabitant of the plains, and becomes progressively scarcer at 

 altitudes ranging up to 5,000 feet. 5,700 feet is the highest I know 

 of. Nicholson shows f that of 1,225 poisonous snakes collected in the 

 vicinity of Bangalore (circa 3,000 feet) upon which Government 

 rewards were paid in the year 1873, only one proved to be an Echis. 

 Poison. — Very conflicting opinions have been expressed regarding 

 the virulence of JUchis poison. It is asserted by many that death is 

 an extremely rare sequel to its bite, but I think there can be no 

 doubt that fatalities are much more frequent than many suppose. 

 Vidal, whose paper in the Bombay Natural History Journal| is a 

 most valuable contribution to the literature on this species, states 

 that he found records of 62 fatal cases treated in the Civil Hospital 

 at Ratnagiri in the year 1878. He estimated that about 20 per 

 cent, of the cases of Hchis bite proved fatal, and remarks that the 

 poison is slow, death occurring on an average in 4^ days, but that 

 some cases lingered on for 20 days. He says later that the EcMs 

 is a far more potent factor than any other venomous species in 

 swelling the mortality of the Bombay Presidency. He sub- 

 stantiates this assertion by the very significant observation that in 

 Echis-ridAen tracts the mortality from snake-bite far exceeds that 

 in districts where this snake is comparatively scarce. In a table 

 compiled from official returns for 8 years (1878 to 1885), for the 

 ■districts of the Bombay Presidency, he shows that in the districts 

 of Hyderabad, Thar and Parkar, Karachi (Sind) and Ratnagiri 

 where the Echis abounds, one man in 5,000 dies per annum 

 from snake-bite, whereas in the districts of Bijapur, Nasik, 

 Ahmednagar and Sholapur, where this snake is rare or absent, only 

 oneman in 100,000 dies from snake-bite. Murray§ says "this 

 little viper is very venomous ; although the action of its poison is 

 not quite so quick as that of a cobra, it is equally as potent, and 

 numerous deaths annually occur from its bite." Dr. Inlach, Civil 



t " Indian Snakes," p. 173. 1 Vol. V., p. 64. 



§ " BepHUa of Sind," p. 57. 



