POISONOUS SNAKES 9 



I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the 

 Argentine, and Chile for six weeks to fulfil my speak- 

 ing engagements. Fiala, Cherrie, Miller, and Sigg left 

 me at Rio, continuing to Buenos Aires in the boat in 

 which we had all come down from New York. From 

 Buenos Aires they went up the Paraguay to Corumbd, 

 where they awaited me. The two naturalists went first, 

 to do all the collecting that was possible ; Fiala and 

 Sigg travelled more leisurely, with the heavy baggage. 



Before I followed them I witnessed an incident 

 worthy of note from the standpoint of a naturalist, and 

 of possible importance to us because of the trip we 

 were about to take. South America, even more than 

 Australia and AMca, and almost as much as India, is 

 a country of poisonous snakes. As in India, although 

 not to the same degree, these snakes are responsible for 

 a very serious mortality among human beings. One of 

 the most interesting evidences of the modern advance 

 in Brazil is the establishment near Sao Paulo of an 

 institution especially for the study of these poisonous 

 snakes, so as to secure antidotes to the poison and to 

 develop enemies to the snakes themselves. We wished 

 to take into the interior with us some bottles of the 

 anti-venom serum, for on such an expedition there is 

 always a certain danger from snakes. On one of his 

 trips Cherrie had lost a native follower by snake-bite. 

 The man was bitten while out alone in the forest, and, 

 although he reached camp, the poison was already work- 

 ing in him, so that he could give no intelligible account 

 of what had occurred, and he died in a short time. 



Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but 

 the most poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to 

 man, belong to the two great families of the colubrine 



