Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-01-30
and cattle they have destroyed. They
are as follows


Animals destroyel-Tigers. 70; leop.
ards, DIG; bears, 81; wolves, l5G;
hyenas, /; other animals, AS; snakes,
5000. OF the las. named, 20 ,094 were
dispatched at Ratnagari alone, whence
infer that Ratnagari is good locality
to avoid. unless one has his pockets full
of snake stones.
To-day nave the following partial
figures from government officer on
duty in the central provinces. In this
great political district there were killed
in 1873: OF tigers, 1877, against 2O3 in
1877 of panthers, 39l, against 54i in
the previous year of bears, 1J7 against
207. Government pays bounty of
fifty shillings for tiger. and ten sh;l-
lings for aleopard. The skins are never
brought in cured, and they are generally
much spoiled in the skinning. The
claws are always taken out and the
whiskers singed. My correspondent
says: "It is tho veriest accident to
get complete skin-One worth having.
Government officers have orders to SO
destroy the skins that they shall not be
again brought up for reward. 1t is
usual to cut Off the heads of all skins
in consequence" Let those, therefore,
who possess fine tiger skin rug, or
sleigh robe, value their prize. I saw
yesterday, at Mohammedan shop in
Bombay, lot of thirty-eight leopard
skins just in from Africa but on look
ing them over, could not find one that
had either q head or claw remaining.
Let mo conclude by repeating the
very interesting story that our Rajpoot,
Bichu Nath, told me about the source
Of his snake stones. He says-and his
statement has been corroborated to me
by learned native physician from the
Deccan-that in the roof of the mouth
of about one cobra in hundred will
be seen this bony growth covered with
the ordinary skin that lines the reptiles
upper jaw. 1t is not attached to the
bone of the skull, but may be separated
by simply cutting the skin which covers
it. The mouth will bleed profusely
after the operation, and the snake will
survive only four or five days. Bichu
Nath af1irms that the possession of this
"stone" makes the cobra king among
its fellows. A similar growth is found
among species OF yellow toad, whose
bite is poisonous, though the "stone /"
from the latter is not SO powerful an
antidote to cobra poison as that from
the cobra itself. 70 save the life Of
bitten person the toad stone must be
applied within two minutes the cobra
stone acts until the heart ceases its pull
sations. 1t is not required that the
cobra stone should be soaked in fresh
Tor stale) milk to draw out the poison,
nor be washed in water, nor have any
thing else done to it, except to wipe it
with clean cloth after using it. 1t
should be kept dry in box. Great
caution must, however, be used not to
take it near corpse, nor to expose it to
light during solar or lunar eclipse.
If the puncture made by the fang of
the snake can be seen-not so very easy
a matter, since the point of the tooth
is as fine as cambria needle-apply
the stone to the place if not, then the
skin may be cut anywhere, and the
stone laid on the wound. If the cobra
stone be soaked sometime in water that
has been standing over night, and the
water then given to person who has
been bitten by rabid dog. hydropho-
bia will be prevented or cured accord
ing to the stage the disease has reached.
H. S. O., in Cincinnati Gazette.