ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
struck the snake and it wriggled about. There was a 
stampede of all my men through the foliage and plants 
which grew along the stream. The snake was dead. 
When they had made quite sure that life was extinct, my 
men returned and pulled the snake out of the water. 
Although the section we had seen floating was so big, the 
rest of the body was not more than four inches in diameter. 
The snake had eaten an entire veado (deer), and that was 
the cause of the great swelling of the central part of its 
body. The shape of the devoured animal could be seen 
plainly inside it. The photograph of the reptile which 
I took is given in one of the illustrations of this book. The 
light was not good for photographic purposes, as it was 
late in the afternoon, and the snake, which after all was 
only eighteen feet five inches long, lay under the shadow of 
the foliage, which made photography rather difficult. As 
I was trying to get a second photograph my men pro¬ 
ceeded with their knives to open the snake and see what 
was inside. The terrific odour which ensued when they 
did so made us violently ill, causing desperate vomiting. 
I have seen it stated, in some books which have been 
published about South America, that snakes of incredible 
length are believed to exist on that continent. Un¬ 
doubtedly the notion has been suggested by the fact that 
inexperienced travellers have seen immensely broad traces 
of snakes on the soft ground near rivers. Measuring 
the diameter of those trails they came to the conclusion 
that the snake was 80 to 100 feet long, and without taking 
further trouble to ascertain they stated they had actually 
seen a snake of that length. Whereas, as a matter of fact, 
as in the case I have described, the immense diameter of 
the snake was merely in the section which enclosed some 
big animal which had been swallowed. 
142 
