10 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Lat ; tlie other measures above two feet from wing to 

 wing extended. 



Snakes are frequently met with in the woods betwixt 

 the sea-coast and the rock Saba, chiefly near 



Snakes. i i i p i • 



the creeks and on the banks oi the river. 

 They are large, beautiful, and formidable. The rattle- 

 snake seems partial to a tract of ground known by the 

 name of Canal JSTumber Three ; there the effects of his 

 poison will be long remembered. 



The Camoudi snake has been killed from thirty to 

 forty feet long ; though not venomous, his size renders 

 him destructive to the passing animals. The Spaniards 

 in the Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the 

 length of seventy or eighty feet, and that he will 

 destroy the strongest and largest bull. His name seems 

 to confirm this j there he is called " matatoro,'^ which 

 literally means " bull-killer.'' Thus he may be ranked 

 amongst the deadly snakes ; for it comes nearly to the 

 same thing in the end, whether the victim dies by 

 poison from the fangs, which corrupts his blood and 

 makes it stink horribly, or whether his body be crushed 

 to mummy, and swallowed by this hideous beast. 



The w^hipsnake of a beautiful changing green, and 

 the coral with alternate broad transverse bars of black 

 and red, glide from bush to bush, and may be handled 

 with safety ; they are harmless little creatures. 



The Labarri snake is speckled, of a dirty brown 

 colour, and can scarcely be distinguished from the 

 ground or stump on which he is coiled up ; he grows to 

 the length of about eight feet, and his bite often proves 

 fatal in a few minutes. 



Unrivalled in his display of every lovely colour of 

 the rainbow, and unmatched in the eff'ects of his deadly 



