LARGE SEKPENTS. 



115 



them while creeping through the jungle after birds or 

 insects, and has sometimes only had time to draw back 

 when they were within a few inches of his face. It is 

 startling in walking along a forest path to see a long 

 snake glide away from just where you were going to set 

 down your foot ; but it is perhaps even more alarming 

 to hear a long-drawn heavy slur-r-r, and just to catch a 

 glimpse of a serpent as thick as your leg and an un- 

 known number of feet in length, showing that you 

 must have passed unheeding within a short distance of 

 where it was lying. The smaller pythons are not how- 

 ever dangerous, and they often enter houses to catch 

 and feed upon the rats, and are rather liked by the 

 natives. You will sometimes be told, when sleeping in 

 a native house, that there is a large snake in the roof, 

 and that you need not be disturbed in case you should 

 hear it hunting after its prey. These serpents no doubt 

 sometimes grow to an enormous size, but such monsters 

 are rare. In Borneo, Mr. St. John states that he 

 measured one twenty-six feet long, probably the largest 

 ever measured by a European in the East. The great 

 water-boa of South America is believed to reach the 

 largest size. Mr. Bates measured skins twenty-one feet 

 long, but the largest ever met with by a European 

 appears to be that described by the botanist. Dr. Gar- 

 diner, in his Travels in Brazil. It had devoured a 

 horse, and was found dead, entangled in the branches 

 of a tree overhanging a river, into which it had been 

 carried by a flood. It was nearly forty feet long. These 

 creatures are said to seize and devour full-sized cattle 

 on the Eio Branco ; and from what is known of their 

 habits this is by no means improbable. 



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