THE BOA CONSTRICTOR. 
37 
CHAPTER IV. 
In the neighbourhood of old buildings, remote from 
human habitations, snakes of all descriptions abound, 
and the porcupine is frequently seen. Sometimes the 
huge boa constrictor glides over the disjointed masses 
in search of prey, which it instinctively knows to take 
refuge in such localities, where man seldom ventures 
to intrude. 
The boa constrictor is the largest of the serpent 
genus. The marvellous power and dimensions as- 
cribed to this snake by travellers would transcend be- 
lief, were not those facts sufficiently authenticated ; 
though even now doubts are entertained of this crea- 
ture exceeding the length of forty feet. But there 
can be no just reason why the truth of the account of 
Suetonius should be questioned, who mentions, that in 
the reign of the Emperor Augustus, a prodigious snake 
was exhibited during one of the public shows, which 
measured twenty-five yards in length, when the im- 
mense size of these creatures has been so fully con- 
firmed by the observations of modern travellers. That 
a snake of thirty, or even forty feet long should have 
so appalled the whole Roman army under Regulus, as 
to have kept his soldiers from approaching the river 
E 
