318 
BLUEFIELDS. 
When a Boa is irritated by stones being thrown at 
it, it will sometimes rear up its body perpendicularly, 
until it appears to rest only on its tail ; and then 
watching a stone, it will suddenly leap after it, dart- 
ing to an incredible distance through the air, and drop 
upon it. Sam assures me he has seen a leap of 
this kind to a distance of full twenty yards, but it 
was down a declivity. The Black and the Grey 
Colubers will do the same, and will sometimes attempt 
even to leap on their human assailants in the same 
manner. I have been assured of these facts by both 
my servants, who aver that they have witnessed them, 
and on whose truthfulness I can entirely rely. 
Dr. Palmer of Spanish-town has informed me that 
in 1829 a Boa of enormous dimensions was killed on 
land belonging to Sheldon, in St. David’s, by Mr. 
M^Laughlan, the overseer. The people, to insure 
the death of so terrible an animal, had cut its body 
into pieces wdth their machettes or hangers ; but 
the fragments were collected, and having been placed 
in contact, measured within a very few inches of 
twenty feet, and were as thick as a man’s leg. 
One about six feet in length which I kept alive for 
a short time, was very inert, lying coiled in the 
bottom of his box, and apparently as unwilling to be 
disturbed as those Pythons which we see wrapped up 
in blankets in zoological menageries. It was very 
offensive, the white creamy matter which it discharged 
from the cloaca, and which was probably the urine, 
being of a most overpowering fetor. For the same 
reason the skinning of one of these Snakes is a very 
unpleasant operation, as I have abundantly proved. 
