The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-03-06
ATerrible Tropical Snake.

ATerrible Tropical Snake,
Harper's Magazine.
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 TRAN
gular head. Sometimes he is q beam
tlful flower 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 a yellowish brown, or the
color of wine lees speckled with pink
and black, or perfect ash tint, or
black with a yellow belly, or black
with rose belly-all hues oftropical
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 incandescent char
coal.
And the fer-de-lance reigns absolute
king over the mountains and tho
ravines; he is lord of the forest and
the solitudes by day, and by night
he extends his dominion over the
public roads, the familiar paths, tho
parks, the pleasure resorts. People
must remain at home after dark un-
less they dwell in the city itself: if
you happen to be out visiting after
sunset, only a mile from town, your
friend will caution you anxiously not
to follow the boulevard as YOU 90
back, and to keep as closely as pos
slble to the very center of the path.
Even in the brightest noon you can
not venture to enter the woods un-
escorted; you cannot trust your eyes
to detect danger; at any moment a
seeming branch, knot of lianas, q
pink or gray root, clump of pend
emit yellow fruit, may suddenly take
lite, writhe, swell, stretch, spring,
strike. Then you will need aid indeed,
and most quickly. for within the
space of a few heart-beats the strick-
en- flesh chills, tumefies, softens,
changes color, spots violaceously,
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,
herte is hope; but the danger is not
passed when the life has been saved.
Necrosis of the tissues begins; the
desh corrupts, tatters, tumbles from
the bone; and the colors of it's putre-
faction are frightful mockeries Of the
hues OF vegetable death, of forest de-
composition, the CHASTITY pinks and
grays and yellows Of rottiny trunks
ana roots melting back into the
thick fetid clay that gave them
o'rsl. You moulaer as the trees
moulder; you crumble and dissolve,
as dissolves the substance of the
balatas and the palms and the AGO.
mats: the Observation-Disclosures has
seized upon you'll
And this pestilence that walketh in
darkness, this destruction that vast
eth at MONDAY, may not be exor-
cised. Each female produces vivipa-
rlously from forty to sixty young at
q birth. The haunts of the creature
are in many cases inaccessible, mex
plorable; it's multiplication is prodig-
Gus; 1T is only the surplus of ito
swarming that overpours into tho
cane fields, and makes the highroads
perilous after sunset, yet to destroy
three or fotr hundred thanatophitlia
on assingle small plantation during
the lapse'ef 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.