Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-08-11
THE FER-DE-LANCE.
THE TERRIBLE REPTILE WHICH
RElGNS IN MARTINIQUE.

Forests and Solitndes by Day, and tn.
Terror of Roads and Parks by Night
The Cat Its Most Formidable Enemy.
Nature is dangerous here; the powers tina,
build here are also the powers that putrefy
here life and death are perpetually inter
changing Office in the never ceasing transfer.
nation Of forces, melting down and reshap
ing living substance simultaneously within
the same awful crucible. There are trees dis
tilling venom; there are plants that have
fangs; there are perfumes that affect the
brain; there are cold green creepers whose
touch consumes flesh like fire; while in all
the recesses and the shadows is a swarming
Of unfamiliar life, beautiful or hideous-in-
sect, reptile, Misunderstanding, devouring,
observing, preying Strange spiders of
burning colors, immense lizards, scaribs
cuirassed i'll all tints of metal, humming-
| birds plunlaSed in all splendor of jewel radi-
ance, flies that flash like fire, centipedes of
gigantic growth. And tho lord of all these,
the despot of these vast domains, is the ter
rible Fer-de-lance, the trigonocephalus, the
Bothrops lanceolatus, the craspodecephalus,
deadliest of Occidental thanatophidia-
There are eight varieties Of him, the most
common being the gray speckled with black,
! precisely the color that enables the monster
! to hide himself among the roots Of the trees
| by simply coiling about them and concealing
| his triangular head. Sometimes he is beau
| tiful flower yellow; then he may never be
! distinguished from the branch OF bright ba-
nanas among which he hangs coiled; or be
may be dark yellow, or yellowish brown,
or the color of wine lees speckled wit. pink
and black, or q perfect ash tint, or black with
yellow belly, or black with a rose belly
all hues of tropical mold, of old bark, Of
| putrefying trees, Of forest detritus. The iris
Of tie eye is orange, with red flashes; at
night it glows like incandescent charcoal
And the fer-de-lance reigns absolute king
over the mountains and the ravines; he is
lord OF the forests and the solitudes by day,
| and BY night he extends his dominion over
the public roads, the familiar paths, the
parks, the pleasure resorts. People must re-
main at home after dark unless they dwell in
the city itself; il you happen to be out visit
ing after sunset, only mile from town, your
friends will caution you anxiouSly not to fol-
low the boulevard as you go back, and to
keep as closely as possible to the very center
OF the path. Even in the brightest noon you
cannot venture to enter the woods unescorted;
you cannot trust your eyes to detect danger;
at any moment seeming branch, q knot Of
hanas. pink or gray root, clump of PEN
dant yellow fruit, may suddenly take life,
writhe, swell, stretch, spring, strike. Then
you will need aid indeed, and most quickly;
for within the space Of few heart beats
the stricken flesh chills, tumefes, softens,
changes color spots vlolaceously, and an icy
GOODNESS crawls through all the blood If
the physician or the pauseur arrives in time
and no artery or vein has been directly
pierced, there is hope; but the danger is not
passed when the life has been saved. Ne
crosis of the tissues begins; the flesh corrupts,
tattcrs, tumbles from the bone; and the
colors of its putrefaction are frightful mock
cries of the hues of vegetable death, of forest
decomposition, the CHASTITY pinks and grays
and yellows of rotting trunks and roots melt
ing back into the thick fetid clay that gave
them birth You molder as the trees
molder; you crumble and dissolve as dis
solves the substance of the balatas and the
palms and the acomats: the Death-of-the-
Woods has seized upon you!
And this pestilence that walketh In dark
ness, this destruction that wasteth at noon
day, may not be exercised. Each female
produces viviparously from forty to sixty
young ct a birth. The haunts Of the crea-
ture are in many cases inaccessible, inexplor-
able; its multiplication is prodigious; it is
only the surplus of its Swarming that over
pours into the cane fields, and makes tho
high roads perilous after sunset, yet to dcs-
troy three or four hundred thanatophidia on
& single small plantation during the lapse OF
twelve months has not been uncommon. The
Introduction of the mangouste (the ichneu-
nom may, it is hoped, do much toward pro-
tecting the workers in the cane fields and on
the cocoa and coffee plantations; but the
mangouste's powers are limited, and the
ocean of death is illimitable.
The experience of fear has enabled doroes-
tic animals to discern the presence of the
energy while invisible to man. Your horse
rears and plungeS in the darkness, trembleS
and sweats; do not try to ride on until you
are assured the way is clear-your animal
has perceived far ahead two scintillating
points, two moving sparks of fire. Or your
dog may come running back, whining, shiv-
ering; accept his warning. The animals
kept about country residences have learned
to fight for their lives; the hen battles hope
lesSly for her chickens, the bull tries to gore
his supple enemy, the pig gives more sue
cessful combat; but the creature who fears
the monster least is the brave cat. Seeing q
SNAKE she at once carries her kittens to a
place of safety, then boldly advances to the
encounter She viii walk to the very limit
Of the serpent's striking range and begin to
feint, teasing him, startling him, trying to
draw his blow How the emerald and
the topazine eyes glow then-they are
flames. s moment more and the tri
angular head, Kissing from the coil,
flashes swift as if moved by wings. But
swifJer still the strong stroke Of the armed
paw that srnites the horror aside, fnging it,
ruangled and gasping, in tie dust. Never
theless, pussy does net yet dare to spring;
the enemy, still active, has almost in
s.antly reformed his coil; but she is again
in front of him, watching-vertical pupil
against vertical pupil Again the lash
ing stroke: again the beautiful counter
ing: the living death is hurled aside, the
scalad skin is deeply torn, one eye socket has
ceased to flame Once more the stroke of the
serpent: once more the light, quick, cutting
blow But row the trigonocephalus is blind,
is stupefed; before he eau attempt TO coil,
pussy has leaped upon him, mailing the hor-
rible fat head fast to the ground with her
two sinewy paws. Now let him lash, writhe,
Irvine, strive to tangle her!-in vain! he VIII
never Lift his head, an instant more and bs
lies stu: the fine white teeth have severed
the ve-tebra just behind the triangular
skun.-Lsfacadio Hesrn ii Earper's Maya
ziua.
An Island DisoppsoesAG.
Sable Island, on.tLe coasssof Nova Scotia
d ,-,j,,aC,- and in