64



Correspondence



neat whisky down his throat and marching him up and down. In relays

we took turns at this, forcing him to stagger along when he would have lain

down. He died, and so did all things bitten by Mambas until F. W. Fitzsimons,

F.Z.S., Curator of the Port Elizabeth Museum and Snake Park, perfected his

serum. If any man living knows anything at all about African snakes it is

Professor Fitzsimons and his black assistant Johann. The latter has survived

more snake-bites than any living person.


In his book Snakes, Professor Fitzsimons writes, upon page 177, as

follows :—


“ In the day’s post there was a letter from a Civil Commissioner in Northern

Rhodesia to the effect that he had shot a snake which measured 11 ft. 9 ins.

and he was posting its pickled head to me for identification. It

proved to be a typical black Mamba, which had been the cause of a reign

of terror. Its lair was a shrub and rock-strewn hill-side, and from this retreat

it occasionally sallied forth, chased and bit passing natives or herd boys.

Eleven human beings it has accounted for over a period of three years, and

in no instance did the victim live beyond one hour—most of them died in

twenty minutes—owing to the fact of their being bitten on the bare body.”


The Black Mamba was, in my African days, much more common than

the green variety, which was regarded as a sport. They move with incredible

swiftness. Although averaging 12 feet in length they move over the ground

so quickly that the human eye cannot follow their movements for long.


Personally I am not a sceptic. I remember only too vividly the fools

who laughed at the stories of the spitting snakes (now scientifically admitted),

the pigmy-people (long ago “ cinematized ”), and the Okapi. There is always

something at the basis of these legends although the legends may become

greatly exaggerated in course of time. Unfortunately for hundreds of poor

humans and animals who have died horrible deaths there is no legend

surrounding the Black Mamba. He is a 100 per cent killer.


P.S.—The colour of the Black Mamba ( Dendraspis angusticeps) is shiny

gun-metal black.


H. Moore, F.Z.S.


(Buluwayo Field Force Artillery, 1896.)


The above letter was shown to Dr. Burgess Barnett, Curator of Reptiles

to the Zoological Society, who makes the following observations ;—


There are four species of Mambas, one of which, Dendraspis angusticeps,

varies a good deal in coloration, being bright green, olive or blackish above

and yellowish or blackish beneath. The darker phases of these snakes are

known as Black Mambas, though they are never, I believe, entirely black.


It is interesting to learn that the so-called black variety is, or was,

commoner than the green in parts of South Africa, for the London Zoo has

never been able to procure one.


In the only case of Mamba-bite that has come under my notice the snake

had been handled for several days before it bit, and the patient recovered

after the use of the serum prepared by the Pasteur Institute.


I am, however, in full agreement with Mr. Moore as to the deadly character

of Mambas, though I have no evidence that one variety is more fatal than the

other.



[Several letters and notes unavoidably held over .— Ed.]



