Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1888-08-03
yenomous Serpent of The Tropics.

There are eight varieties of him (the fer
de.lance), 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.
Some times he is beautiful flower yellow !;
then be may never be distinguished from the
bunch of bright bananas among which he
hangs coiled or he may be dark yellow
or yellowish brown, or the color of vine
lees speckled with pink and black, or per.
feet ash tint, or black with yellow belly,
or black with rose belly-all hues of tropi.
cal mould, of old bark, of putrefying trees,
of forest detritus. The iris of the eye is
orange, with red flashes; at night it glows
like ncandescent charcoal.
And the fer defiance reigns absolute king
over the mountains and the ravines he is
lord ofthe forests and the solitudes by day and
by night he extends his dominion over the
public roads, the familiar paths, the parks,
and pleasant resorts. People must remain
at home after dark unless they dwell in the
city itself; if you happen to be out visiting
after sunset, only mile from town, your
friends will caution you anxiousIy not to
follow the boulevard as you 60 back, and to
keep as closely as possible to the very GEN.
ire of the path. Even in the brightest noon
you cannot venture to enter the woods un-
escorted; you cannot trust your eyes 10 de
tect danger; at any moment Il seeming
branch, a knot OF ianas, pink or gray root,a
clump of pendant yellow fruit, may suddenly
take you, Writhe, swell, stelch, spring, strike.
Then you will need aid indeed aud most,
quickly; for within the space of few heart
beats the stricken flesh chills, tumeties
softens, changes color, spots violaceously,
and an icy coldness crawls through all the.
blood. If the physician or the pauseur ar
rives in time and no artery or vein has been
directly pierced there is hope; but the dan
ger is not passed when the life has been
saved. Necrosis of the tissues begins the
flesh Corrupts, tatters tumbles from The
bone, and the colors of ita putrefaction are
frightful mockeries of the hues of vegetable
death, Of forest decomposition, the giast!y
pinks aud graye and yellows OF rotting
trunks and roots melting back into the thick
fetid clay that gayethem birth You mouI.
der as the trees moulder you crumbe and
dissolve as dissolves the substance of the
balatus and the palms and the accomats-
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 at birth. The haunts of the crea
lures are in many cases inaccessible its
multiplication is prodigious; it is only the
surplus of its swarmiug that overpours into
the cane fields, and makes the high roads
perilous after sunset. Yet to destroy three
or four hundred thanatophidia on single
small plantation during the lapse of twelve
months has not been uncommon. The in.
PRODUCTION of the mangouste (the ichneu.
mon) may, it is hoped, do much toward pro.
tecting the workers in the cane fields and
on tie cocoa aud coffee plantations, but the
mangouste's powers are limited, and the
ocean of death is imitable.-Harper's
MoufhIu +.