The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-01
A Terrible Tropical Snake.
I.afcadic HeArn, In IIArper's Masas,u

I.afcadic HeArn, in liArper's Magazine,
 There arc eight varieties of hlm (the fer-de. lance), the most common being tine gray speokied with black, precise ly tho color that enables the monster to hide himself among the roots of the trees by simply ooiling about them and ooncealing his triangular hoad. Sometimes he Is beautiful flower yellow; then he may never be distin- guished from the bunoa of bright ban. anas among which he hangs ooiled or he may be dark yellow, or 4 yellow ish- brown, or the color of wine lees speckled with pink and black, or a perfect ash tint, or black with \ yellow belly, or black with a rose polly -all h ies of tropical mold, of old bark, of putrcfy ing trees, Of forest detritns. The iris of the eye Is orange, with red flashes at night 1t glows like incan. descent charcoal.
 And the fcr-de. lance relgns absolute king over the mountains and the ra- vines; he is lord of the forests and the solitudes by day, and by night he OK. tends his dominion over the public roads, the familiar paths, tho parks, the pleasure resorts. People must re- main at home after dark unless they dwell in tho oity itself; 1T you happen to be out visiting after sunset, only mile from town, your friends will eau tion you anxiously not to follow the boulevard as you go back, and to keep as closely as possible to tho very cen. tor of the path. Even in the bright est noon you cannot venture to enter tho woods nnescorted; you cannot trust your eyes to detect danger; at any moment seeming branch, knot of lianas, a pink or gray root, . clump of pendent yellow fruit, may suddenly take life, writhe, swell, stretch, spring, strike. Then you will nccd aid, in- deed, and most quickly, for within the space of few heart. beats the stricken flesh chills, tumefcs, softens, changes color, spots violaceously and an icy coldncss crawla through the blood. If the physician or tho J,dnsear arrives In time, and no artery or vein has been directly pierced, thcrc is hope; but tho danger is not passed when the life has been saved. Necr0- s.s of the tissues begins; the flesh cor rupts, letters, tumblcs from the bone and the colors Of It's putrefaction arc frightful mockerics of the hues of veg. etablc death, of forest decomposition, the ghastly pinks and grays and yell lows of rotting trunks and roots melt ing back into the thick ictid clay that gave them birth. You molder as the trees molder; you crumble and dis solve as dissolves the substance of the balatas and the palms and the acomats 1; the Death.o of. the. Woods has seized upon you
 And this pestilcnce that walketh in darkness, this destruction that wasteth at monday, may not bc exorciscd. Each female produces viviparously from forty to sixty young at birth. The hAunts of the creature are in many cases inaccessible, inexplorable; its multiplication is prodlgious; 1t h only the surplus of its swarming that overpours into the cane fields, and makes the high-roads perilous after sunset, yet to destroy three or four hundred thanatophidia on . small plantation during the lapse of twelve months has not becn uncommon. The introduction of the mAngousts (the ichneumon) may, 1t Is hoped, do much toward protecting the workers in the cane fields and on the cocoa and coffee plantations; but the mangouste's pow CTS are limited, and the ocean of death fs illimitabIe.