The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-02-26
INDIA'S SNAKES.
WHERE THERE ARE 1000 COB.
RAS TO THE SQUARE MILE
"A REMEDY WORSE THAN
THE BITE.
rTimes of India ]

The statistics show that during the
last year the amount of rewards paid
for the destruction of wild beasts and
venomous snakes in British India was
SO, ,lS9 rupees. AS far as regards the
destruction of wild beasts, the money
was, no doubt, well spent, though the
rewards are sometimes too easily earn
ed. We have, for instance, heard of q
young wolf, which had been brought
up domestically until it was as tame
as lady's lapdog, falling victim to q
greedy servant In the cook-room for
the sake Of the head-money. But, af-
ter all, wolves are not very pleasant
pets, and there can be little doubt that
the offer of rewards for the destruction
of really dangerous animals Is in the
main useful. Tempted by this, the
village shikaree, though he may have
no baby of his own, will sit up for the
wolf that prowls about the precincts
of the village at night thirsting for in
fants' blood.
In reality, only three species of
snakes dangerous to human life are to
be met with in the Bombay Presidency
viz: the cobra, the chain viper, and
a small black snake, banded with white,
which is known to naturalists as Bun
qa7us arenatus. There is another pref
tily-marked little viper, which is COM
mon enough, but, as it is barely foot
in length, its bite is very rarely fatal.
To these popular Anglo-Indian tradi-
ton adds several most deadly species
the carpet snake, the whip snake, the
eye snake, etc. The last owes its pane,
according to DR.. E. Nicholson, to an
idea prevalent among otherwise sane
Englishmen that it in the habit of
hanging by the tail from branch of 3
tree for the purpose of hitting passers-
by in the eye. Of the three species
mentioned aboYe,the Bungarus is very
inoffensive, and not common, while
the chain viper is extremely lazy, and
generally gives warning of its presence
by Kissing furiously when any one ap-
proaches, so that accidents from these
two species are probably rare.
The cobra, on the other hand, is one
of the commonest snakes in India, as
it is one of the most fatal in the world
DIR. Nicholson, who was appointed in
1873 to superintend the distribution of
the rewards in Bangalore, estimates
the cobra population of that region at
LOCO per square mile. This calcula-
ton, if correct, will perhaps serve
equally for any station in the Deccan,
as, for instance, Poona, where the CO.
bra finds both board and lodging on
easy terms in the holes of the field
rats, and probably does man more SER
vice in q year than all the mischief it
does him in a century. Throughout
Bombay itself the cobra swarms, es-
pecially on places like Malabar Hill,
and Cumballa Hill, and Parel. That
the cobra is SO rarely seen is only an.
other proof of it's extremely timid and
wary disposition. But snakes, indeed
shun man far more than man shuns
them. Their first impulse on hearing
his dreaded footstep is to run, and
among Europeans who wear boots the
posi- bility Of being bitten is small.
Natives, walking noiselessly will
bare feet, are, of course, much more
liable to accidents, yet the statistics
we have already referred to give the
total number of persons killed by ven
omous snakes during the year 1878 al
1852, or less than one in 10000 o.
the population. And it is not unlikely
that we should be nearer the trutf
if we cut down that number by half
not only because snake-bite has beer
since the days of Hamlet's father
most convenient explanation of doubt
full deaths, but because in hundreds O
cases, " here the bite of the snake woult