174 FETIDNESS OF COMMON SNAKE. [PART II. 
Snake under provocation. Of its lasting proper- 
ties I suffered the following unpleasant proof. 
Having once found two lying coiled up close 
together, I disabled them both by grounding 
the butt of my gun on them, only using it, I 
think (so far as they were concerned), for that 
one blow. The butt however became in conse- 
quence of it so thoroughly impregnated with their 
fetid stink, that I could hardly bear to use the 
gun for weeks afterwards. Were I to say that 
the smell was disagreeably perceptible on it for 
a good many months, I believe I should not be 
in the least over-stating the case. 
As one of our garden-men was, a few years 
ago, passing by a small stream forming the com- 
munication between two ponds, his attention was 
attracted by an unusual splashing in it. On going 
to the spot, he found this was occasioned by a 
violent struggle between a Common Snake of some 
twenty inches in length, and an Hel about two- 
thirds of his own size, which he was using his 
utmost endeavours to swallow, and had actually 
succeeded in getting half-way down his throat, 
while the Kel was still making frantic exertions 
with the extant part of his tail, in his futile 
attempts to escape. The man put an end to the 
