18 



NATUEAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



turalist held on, and being near its 

 head was out of reach ot its tail. 



His savage allies, themselves 

 out of danger, were delighted with 

 his performance and shouted and 

 yelled with exulation, paying no 

 heed to his orders for them to 

 draw him and his steed farther up 

 the bank that he might be out of 

 danger of being carried out into 

 the stream. When at length they 

 did understand and drew him some 

 forty yards farther up the bank, 

 the alligator had become quiet 

 from exhaustion and he succeeded 

 in tying up its jaws and securing 

 its forefeet. He then threw him- 

 self upon its tail to keep it from 

 doing damage with that, and after 

 another severe struggle overpow- 

 ered it completely. Placing it in 

 the canoe they conveyed it to their 

 camp and hung it up, and the vic- 

 torious naturalist, after cutting its 

 throat, calmly ate his breakfast 

 and proceeded with the work of 

 dissection. 



One of the most important sub- 

 jects which Waterton studied in 

 the forest was the composition of 

 "Wourali," the deadly poison with 

 which the Indians tip their arrows, 

 to make the wounds they inflict 

 fatal. He found the ingredients 

 to be the fangs of certain venomous 

 snakes, two species of venomous 

 ants, whose bites will cause a fever, 

 Indian pepper, and various other 

 plants, especially the terrible wour- 

 ali vine. These various ingredients 

 were placed together in a pot and 

 boiled over a slow fire until they 

 formed a thick syrup of a deep brown 

 color. It was then poured off into a 

 gourd or a calabash, a little pot of 

 Indian manufacture, carefully cov- 

 ered and kept in the dryest part of 

 the hut. In wet weather they 

 would occasionally suspend the 

 vessel over a fire to drive out the 

 moisture, for the poison is the sav- 

 ages' most valued possession, and 

 dampness would soon destroy its 

 strength. 



Waterton thinks it probable 

 that it is not necessary to have all 

 the ingredients used to make the 

 poison effectual, but supposes that 

 some of them may be added mere- 

 ly from fancy or from habit, or 

 that superstitions, that dominates 

 alike savage and civilized man may 

 have much to do with the method 

 of mixing the potent drugs. 



When hunting large game the 

 Indians used ordinary bows, with 

 large arrows steeped in the poison, 

 but for small game such as birds 

 and monkeys, large arrows were 

 unnecessary, for the poison would 

 do its work so quickly and surely 



that a mere scratch was sufficient 

 to kill. The smaller arrows were 

 discharged from an ingeniously 

 constructed blowpipe which could 

 be aimed with great accuracy. 

 These blowpipes were made of 

 reeds which grew to an amazing 

 height, and the sections used were 

 from ten to eleven feet long but 

 did not show the slightest sign of 

 tapering, or of joints. The reeds 

 were of a bright yellow color and 

 were perfectly smooth inside and 

 out. for they grew hollow without 

 any traces of pith or of knots. 

 These reeds were too light and 

 slender to be used alone, so they 

 were pushed down into the hollows 

 of larger coarser stalks that served 

 as cases for them. The end of the 

 pipe which was put to the mouth 

 was bound with a silk grass cord 

 to keep it from splitting, while the 

 other end, which was liable to be 

 injured by striking against trees or 

 against the ground, was covered 

 with a ring made out of the seed 

 of a fruit. 



The arrows used in these pipes 

 were from nine to ten inches long, 

 and were made from the ribs of 

 the leaves of a species of palm 

 tree. One end of the arrow was 

 pointed as sharp as a needle and 

 carefully poisoned, while the other 

 end was wrapped with cotton tied 

 on with silk grass, to make it fit 

 the inside of the tube perfectly. 

 The tidies were provided with 

 sights made of the teeth of some 

 small animal, and the arrows flying 

 silent and swift seldom failed to 

 hit their mark and their wounds 

 meant death. 



Mr. Waterton procured samples 

 of the "wourali" poison, and both 

 in the forest and at his home in 

 England made a series of experi- 

 ments to determine its effects and. 

 if possible, to find an antidote. He 

 found that a fowl slightly wounded 

 with a poisoned arrow would sink 

 into a stupor almost immediately 

 and in four minutes would go in- 

 to convulsions, and would die at 

 the end of five minutes. 



Animals dying from the effects 

 of this poison seemed to feel but 

 little pain, and the naturalist when 

 collecting curiosities usually resort- 

 ed to it as the least painful mode 

 of killing his specimens to get 

 their skins. On one occasion he 

 wounded a captive sloth and put 

 it down on the floor within two 

 feet of a table. Now the at, or 

 three-toed sloth, is of all animals 

 the most tenacious of life and can 

 survive wounds that would kill al- 

 most anything else, but this one 

 had barely reached the table when 



the baneful effects of the poison 

 overcame him, he grasped the table 

 leg feebby, as if to ascend, and 

 then sank back and expired with- 

 out a struggle. A large powerful 

 ox was tied to a stake and, no 

 large arrows being at hand, was 

 shot with three small arrows. He 

 did not struggle but tried hard to 

 keep on his feet, shivered and 

 started violently from time to time 

 and in twenty-five minutes was 

 dead. 



Travellers and settlers told of a 

 number of alleged antidotes for 

 the poison, but the Indians who 

 made it and who might be sup- 

 posed to know its properties best 

 knew of nothing that would stay 

 its effects, but abandoned all hopes 

 of life when wounded by such 

 deadly arrows by accident or in 

 war. Mr. Waterton tried in many 

 ways to find an antidote for the 

 poison, but in vain, everything 

 wounded with it died except a she 

 ass which he had poisoned in the 

 shoulder with wourali while in En- 

 gland. The poor beast sank down 

 and in ten minutes was apparently 

 dead. 



An incision was then made in 

 her windpipe and her lungs were 

 regularly inflated for two hours, 

 when the suspended animation re- 

 turned, but the artificial breathing 

 had to be kept up for two hours 

 longer. The victim of science fin- 

 all}- recovered and was kept in 

 ease and luxury the rest of her 

 days in the park at the naturalist's 

 residence, Walton Hall. 



The most remarkable circum- 

 stance connected with this poison 

 is that the flesh of an animal killed 

 by it is not injured, but is savory, 

 wholesome food, and will keep as 

 long and as well as if it had been 

 killed by the butcher's knife. 



His description of the India 

 rubber tree may prove interesting: 

 "It is large, and as tall as any in 

 the forest. The wood has much 

 the appearance of sycamore. The 

 gum is contained in the bark; when 

 that is cut through it oozes out 

 very freely it is quite white and 

 looks as rich as cream; it hardens 

 almost immediately as it issues 

 from the tree; so that it is easy to 

 collect a ball by forming the juice 

 into a globular thape as fast as it 

 comes out; it becomes nearly black 

 by being exposed to the air, and is 

 real India rubber without under- 

 going any other process." 



It is to be regretted that the 

 author was so modest, for he tells 

 but little of himself or of his own 

 adventures, though an account of 

 his own journeyings would certain- 



