12 



WANDERINGS IN 



First length of seventy or eighty feet, and that he will destroy 



Journey. 



the strongest and largest bull. His name seems to con- 

 firm this; 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 hor- 

 ribly, or whether his body be crushed to mvimmy, and 

 swallowed by this hideous beast. 



The whipsnake of a beautiful changing green, and the 

 coral with alternate broad traverse 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 effects of his deadly 

 poison, the counacouchi glides undaunted on, sole mo- 

 narch of these forests ; he is commonly known by the 

 name of the bush -master. Both man and beast fly 

 before him, and allow him to pursue an undisputed path. 

 He sometimes grows to the length of fourteen feet. 



A few small caimen, from two to twelve feet long, may 

 be observed now and then in passing up and down the 



