H 
ROCKHAMPTON 
CHAP. 
miniature lake, its water covered with large blue lilies 
floating amid their leaves on which the sun shone 
through a network of graceful palms. Scarlet, yellow- 
eyed dragonflies skimmed over its surface, while 
presently a great butterfly tremulously fluttered past, 
and the sunlight, catching the metallic lustre of its 
wings, changed them to every rainbow hue. The trees 
were clasped and linked together by delicate tendrils, 
and climbing ferns and huge caladiums covered the 
ground. It was a scene of wild, mysterious beauty, 
but in the distance there was the hum of a thousand 
gossamer-winged and hungry insects, and I hurried on 
with my sketch, for the mosquitoes had already found 
me out. Too much wrapped up in my work to turn 
round, I pushed twice aside from my cheek what I 
took to be a hanging tendril ; but surely it moved 
too quickly — one wild jump and I was yards away ! 
It was a long tree snake that had fastened its tail to a 
branch, and, curious to find out what manner of being 
this might be that had disturbed its solitude, was 
gracefully swaying backwards and forwards. This was 
the climax, and with a good deal of slipping and 
scrambling, I left the scene without a regret. That 
same night I heard a great fluttering in the aviary, and 
going out, found a large copper-coloured snake hanging 
from a beam. It had already swallowed one bird, and 
was in the act of crushing another. I called Mr. R. 
who caught it with a pair of shears, but not before I 
had made a rough sketch of it. Next day I filled in 
the sketch in colour, getting also correctly the scales 
from the corner of its mouth to the tip of its nose, 
which, according to their number, are said to indicate 
its degree of venom. The larger and fewer the scales, 
the more deadly they say it is. Birds seem almost 
mesmerised by these reptiles, and I have many times 
