370 
GREAT PUFF ADDER. 
[chap, IX 
On the fifth day we were, at 5 p.m., within twelve 
miles of Obbo, and we bivouacked on a huge mass of 
granite on the side of a hill, forming an inclining 
plateau of about an acre. The natives who accom¬ 
panied us were immediately ordered to clear the grass 
from the interstices of the rocks, and hardly had they 
commenced when a slight disturbance, among some 
loose stones that were being removed, showed that 
something was wrong. In an instant lances and stones 
were hurled at some object by the crowd, and upon 
my arrival I saw the most horrid monster that I have 
ever experienced. I immediately pinned his head to 
the ground and severed it at one blow with my hunt¬ 
ing-knife, damaging the keen edge of my favourite 
weapon upon the hard rock. It was a puff adder of 
the most extraordinary dimensions. I immediately 
fetched my measuring-tape from the game-bag, in 
which it was always at hand. Although the snake 
was only 5 ft. 4 in. in length, it was slightly above 
15 inches in girth. The tail was, as usual in 
poisonous snakes, extremely blunt, and the head per¬ 
fectly flat, and about 2-Jr inches broad, but unfor¬ 
tunately during my short absence to fetch the measure 
the natives had crushed it with a rock. They had 
thus destroyed it as a specimen, and had broken three 
of the teeth, but I counted eight, and secured five 
