1851.] 
A LARGE SNAKE. 
339 
escape, fired. It remained motionless some time, as if 
i stunned by the shock, and then slowly began to uncoil, 
j turning its head down towards the water, but evidently 
so much injured, as to be unable to move its body on 
f land. In vain I cried to the Indians to secure it : the 
I pilot had been severely bitten by one some time before, 
' and was afraid ; and so, instead of obeying me, they 
I kept striking it with a thick stick, which only hastened 
: its descent down the bank into the water, where, sinking 
' to the bottom among dead trees, it was quite out of our 
I power. As near as I could judge, the snake was fifteen 
I or twenty feet long, and as thick as my thigh. At Sao 
i| Gabriel I saw also, on the rocks, asleep, one of the most 
j deadly serpents of South America, the Surucucu {La- 
|j diesis mutus). It is very handsomely marked with rich 
umber-brown, and armed with terrific poison-fangs, two 
[ on each side ; it is much dreaded, as its bite is said to 
j be incurable. 
j On leaving Sao Gabriel I was again attacked with 
j fever, and on arriving at Sao Joaquim I was completely 
I laid up. My Indians took the opportunity to steal a 
i quantity of the caxaga I had brought for preserving the 
;| fishes, and anything else they could lay their hands on ; 
!: so I was glad, on the occasion of a slight remission of 
the fever, to pay their wages and send them off. After 
[ a few days, the violence of the fever abated, and I 
j thought I was going to get over it very easily ; but such 
I was not the case, for every alternate day I experienced 
I 
a great depression,- with disinclination to motion : this 
always followed a feverish night, in which I could not 
sleep. The next night I invariably slept well perspir- 
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