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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



among the most powerful of their kind, in whose folds man is helpless 

 and bones of goats and cattle are broken with a crash which, it is said, 

 may be heard many rods. We turn from these, whose fearful presence 

 we associate with the splendors of tropical forests, to species harmless 

 and often serviceable to man, yet everywhere persecuted by him. 

 Among these we find the beautiful ring and grass snakes of our 

 gardens; the milk and striped or garter snake; the common adder 

 (so called), but entirely harmless ; the active black snake or racer, 

 found nearly everywhere in the United States. More dreaded because 

 more dangerous than the gigantic species mentioned, are the venom- 



FlG. 12. 



Cobra -de -C apello. 



ous serpents, not powerful in strength or immense in size, but fierce 

 in some cases, and in their attack deadly. The largest of these is said 

 to be the bush-master, found in British Guiana, which, on the authority 

 of Waterton, attains a length of fourteen feet. But the belted hama- 

 dryad of Burmah is often seen twelve to fourteen feet in length, and is 

 a foot in circumference ; and it is stated that specimens have been seen 

 three fathoms (eighteen feet) long. If so, it is probably the largest 

 known venomous serpent. This terrible creature feeds on other snakes, 

 hence its scientific name, Ophiophagus elaps. Others, as the cobra and 

 the rattlesnake, are relatively small, rarely attaining a length greater 

 than six feet, usually not more than four feet. 



