106 
Live Toads in the Snake's Belly. 
soino lime. Foi- a slior-t wliilo past a G to 8-ft. long snake liad claimed oar 
attention, but owing to its qnickly withdrawing Into the thick Inish upon 
tlie slightest noise, it had pat oiir p:iti(MK'e to the test, when it was finally 
outwitted by one of the Indians, who with a triumphant laugh, brought 
it to me. From its somewhat s\\'olh'n l)eny we presumed that it must have 
swallowed an animal recently, and ^vlien I cut it open T found two large 
toads covered over with a yellow isli slimy enveb)])e. JJeganliiig tlieiii as 
dead, 1 thi-ew them aside wiihont worrying over them further, nntil after 
a few minutes I noticed to my sur]>rise that they were beginning to move 
and gradually showing more distinctive signs of nnimntion : in the course 
of eight minutes they had so fnr recovered as to decamp. Judging from 
the speedy and strong digestive j^owers of snnkes the two toads could not 
indeed have been long in their narrow prison although an interval of at 
least 6 to 8 minutes, probably not more, must have elapsed between th« 
swallowing of the victims and the death of their captor. The harmless 
snakes Corouclhi cohclht Linn., C. TiCfilnac lann., and C. Mrrirniii Vv. 
Neuwied are very frequently met with in the savannah. 
261. After this somewhat lengthy digression about snakes, let me 
return to our life in Pirara. which, lK»Avever, I do not ]n'opose recording 
until from the middle of August, because each day was but the mournful 
monotonous repetition of the one gone before, wdiile except for the island- 
like oases, one saw ahead only a muffled grey sky, and an almost limitless 
sheet of water which stretched in the North as far as the liase of the Tnca- 
raima Eanges, and in the N.E. and "NT.W. out into the far distance where 
its edge became blurred with the horizon. Only during the second half of 
the month did the atmosjihere begin to change, the sky become clearer, 
the thunderstorms rarer, and often foui- to five dnys pass without any rain 
falling: the wind, however, still blew Prom out of the West and North- 
West, and drove away the morning hnze that now appeared fairly 
regularly. 
262. The meteorological observations carried on from the end of May 
nntil the end of August, gave the following results: — 
Barometer rx Exribisii iNcnES A\n Decimals, 
T 1 1 1 : K* .\I 0 M I'.T E R — F A n R E X 11 E r T . 
Highci^t. 
Lowest, 
Mean. 
jMaximnm 
difference. 
Highest. 
Lowest. 
Mean, 
- 'a 
Maximum 
difference. 
End of Jlay ,.. 
.Tune 
Auonst 
'29,500 
29,490 
29,722 
29,730 
29,292 
29.310 
29.500 
29.500 
29. .334 
29.439 
29.021 
29.017 
0 2( IS 
11.180 
0.222 
(1.230 
91 
90 
86.5 
88 
73.5 
73 5 
74.8 
70. 
81 
81,07 
80.69 
82,10 
17,5 
10.5 
11,7 
12 
263. Thanks to our Indians and spies, all kinds of doubtful reports 
continued reaching us concerning our neighbours the Brazilians, and 
were war operations really to commence, the particular time had now 
arrived when they could be most easily undertaken because the flooded 
