Daily Republican., 1883-07-31
a Terrible Snak e.

A new snake, called the echis carl
nata, which Is the first specimen of it.
race seen in England, and of which W,
have no specimen here, is attracting
crowds to the Regents Park, London
and dividing sensation with Oscar
Wilde in his new common and sheared
sense form. 1t is about foot and a
half long, and the color is dingy gray
1t is the deadliest of created things, for
it carries in its tiny head the secret of
destroying life with the sudden rapidity
of lightning, and the concentrated
agony of all poisons. This king of the
aspsi is more dangerous than the cobra
or the korait, for it does not turn and
run like the one, or flash into conceal
ment like the other, but with fearless
pluck gives fight, and pitches its eigh-
teen inches Of length against any
conner.
A stroke of stick will break it in
two or stone will smash it, but such
Is its venomons lnalignity that it will
challenge attack by every device in it's
power, stalking it's own life on the mere
chance of its adversary coming within
the circle Of it's reach. At most the
radius of that circle is twelve inches,
but within it at any point lies certain
death, and in the bare hope of hand or
foot trespassing within its reach the
ecbis throws its body into a tigure.of.
eight coil, and attracting attention by
rubbing its loops together, which, from
the roughness of the scales (hence he
epithet carnata), makes a rustling
sound, erects its head in the center ana
awaits attack.
No one having once encountered this
terrible little creature can ever forget
its truculent aspect when aroused its
eagerly aggressive air it's restless coils,
which, in constant motion one over
another and rustling ominously all the
time, bring it nearer and nearer to the
object of its fury its eye, malignant
even beyond those of other virers and
then the inconceivable rapidity Of its
stroke. The echis does not wait to
strike until it is wi hin striking dis.
tance, but vents its malice in repeated
ly darting at nothing, hoping to aggra-
vate its antagonist into coming to closer
quarters, or more probably as a mere
depression Of its own uncomfortable
viciousness
| "A uidi y vi iIS udily NdlcCi Iius ~ Ill
the morning basking in the sun, where
it revels until aroused to sudden an
ger by football 1t then coils itself up
80 that a ln;n's hand might cover it,
and waits The needless victim ap-
proaches, disrespects the rustling at his
feet, and the next instant goes stagger-
ing from his path, for he has felt
the death bite, and is doomed. The
bitten man Is given few moments. The
swift venom strikes the life instantly
from his blood his limbs become para
lyzed, his eyes dizzy, he reels as he
walks, suddenly stops, clutches at some,
thing, and falls.
This is certainly the perfection Of
deathcraft. By flash of electricity IL
man can kill a. living creature as in.
stantly az if it had been struck by
lightning, or. invoking the discoveries of
chemists, can dissolve and destroy life
with all the terrible circumstances of
vegetable or mineral poison. But these
are the results of science, laboriously
acquired by the cooperation of genera
tions of human beings The echis is
master of swift and silent murder of its
own right from its birth, and, unaided,
it perfects it's venom, and goes out on
its war path to give or take. Its assai.
ants have a thousand weapons; the
echis only one. But against that one,
If the chance to strike comes, not all
the forces of nature or the cunning of
science can prevail.