Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-25
A TERRIBLE TROPICAL SNAKE.

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 Sometimes he is a
beautiful yellow; then he may never be
/ distinguished from the bunch of bright
| bananas among which he hangs coiled or
he may be a dark yellow; or yellowish-
brown, or the color Of wine lees speckled
with pink and black, or perfect ash tint,
or black with yellow belly, or black
with rose belly-all hues Of tropical
mold, of old bark, or putrefying trees, of
forest detritus. The iris of the eye is
orange, with red flashes; at night it glows
Ike incandescent charcoal.
| And the fer-de-lance reigns absolute
king over the mountains and the ravines ;
! he IS lord of the forests and the soitudes
by day, and by night he extends the do
minion over the public roads, the familiar
| paths, the parks, the pleasure 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 anxiously not to follow the
boulevard as you go back, and to keep as
closely as possible to the very centre of
the path. Even in the brightest noon
| you can not venture to enter the woods
unescorted you can not trust your eyes
TO detect danger; at any moment a seem
ing branch, knot OF lianas, pink or
gray root, clump of 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 a few
heart-beats the stricken flesh chills, tune
fies, softens, changes color, spots VIC
laceously, and an icy coldness 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. Necrosis of
the tissues begins; the flesh corrupts, tat
tiers, tumbles from the bone; and the COL
ors of its putrefaction are frightful mock
cries of the bues of vegetable death, of
forest decomposition, the ghastly pinks
and grays and yellows of rotting trunks
and roots melting back into the thick fetid
clay that gave them birth You molder
80 INC iSOo aoiueL you CIuLADie duu us
solve as dissolye5 the substance of the
balatas, and the palms and the acomats !;
the Death-of-the- Woods has seized upon
youi
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 Great
ure are in many cases inaccessible, mex
plorable; its multiplication is prodigious /;
it is only the surplus Of its swarming that
oyerpours into the cane fields, and makes
the high roads perilous after sunset, yet to
destroy three or four hundred thanato-
phidia on a single small plantation during
the lapse of twelve months has not been
uncommon. The introduction of the
mangouste (the ichneumon) may, it is
hoped, do much toward protecting 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.-Harper's Magazine