The Humming Bird. 59 



No alarm need be felt if a snake refuses to eat, for they 

 can go without food for a wonderful length of time, but they 

 must always have clean water in the cage. One objection to 

 them is their excessively unpleasant odour when first caught, 

 but they lose this after a few days of captivity, especially if 

 handled frequently. At first they are very nervous, hissing 

 and struggling whenever taken up, but they get tame in an 

 incredibly short space of time. Particular care should be 

 taken to keep their cage securely fastened, as they are very 

 quick to perceive the least opportunity of escape, and are by 

 no means easy to discover when they once get loose in a house. 

 Very young snakes should not be placed with larger ones, as 

 the latter will not hesitate to devour them. 



Those who do not feel that antipathy to these reptiles, 

 which is so common among people who are not properly 

 acquainted with them, will find the time and trouble spent on 

 them amply repaid, especially if they go into the country and 

 study their habits in a state of nature as well as in captivity. 



W. F. H. Rosenberg. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 



A MYSTERY UNVEILED. 

 " Discovered," in a scientific sense, the Great Lakes of 

 Africa undoubtedly have been during the latter half of this 

 century ; " discovered " in the popular acceptation of the term 

 they certainly were more than four centuries since. If we 

 turn to the old maps of Africa, dating back 400 years, a surprise 

 will await us. For there, rudely drawn no doubt, and not very 

 correctly placed, though more accurately than was the greater 

 portion of Africa until recently, are large inland waters which 

 it is not difficult to recognise as the Victoria Nyanza, Tangan- 

 yika, or Albert Nyanza, perhaps — and possibly also the Nyassa 

 lake. This fact is very clearly brought out in the second 

 volume of that very admirable work, " The Story of Africa 

 and its Explorers," by Robert Brown, M.A., published, with 

 copious maps and illustrations, by Messrs. Cassell & Company. 



A STRANGE LAND. 

 Aristotle and Ptolemy both alluded to the African lakes, and 

 the Portuguese and Arabs also brought vague rumours from the 

 interior of the existence of three great inland seas. But it 

 was reserved for Richard Burton to be the first white man to 



