348 TlMEHRl. 
less evenly paired triangular areas on each side, on a pale 
yellowish-brown or maize-coloured ground ; while the tail 
was of a lively yellow colour. They were 10 inches in 
length and possessed extremely fine and needle-like 
curved fangs about J of an inch long. From these 
chara6lers, it is obvious that the yellow-tailed labarria, 
described by Dr. BANCROFT as being a small snake 
attaining a length of about 14 inches, is nothing more 
than the young of the common species. 
The Sugar in Sugar-cane. — The following note bear- 
ing on the article Some Experiments on Sugar Cane* 
has been sent me by Mr. FRANCIS : — 
The following Extract from the Produce Market Review^ given in the 
Demerara Daily Chronicle for August, 13th, 1887, will show how 
erroneous are the current ideas respecting the cane sugar industry, and 
the proportion of sugar in the plant : — 
11 Our planters console themselves with the idea that the cheapness 
11 of European Sugar, in the markets of the world, is due to bounties, 
u and to a trifling extent this may be the case in countries near the pro- 
44 ducing districts. But the main reason for its cheapness is perfection 
" in cultivation and manufacture. Indeed, no more striking illustration 
" of the moral of the old fable of the hare and the tortoise could be 
•* chosen, than the change in the relative positions of the towering Cane 
" and the humble Beet. The former from time immemorial has 
" contained 18 per cent, of saccharine matter, by weight, from which 
M most of our Planters extract, in a debased form, 6 per cent., or one- 
4< third of the Sugar the plant contains. The mangold, the original, 
44 form of the Sugar Beet, contains 4 per cent, of Sugar. The Germans 
" last season from improved varieties of Beet, extracted close on 12 per 
" cent, of their weight, to a great degree in the form of pure White 
44 Sugar fit for direft consumption, or about three times what would be 
44 produced from the root not so many years ago. It is to progress 
44 like this, and not to bounties, that the cheapness of European White 
* See Timehri, New Series, Vol. 1, Part 1. 
