Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1895-01-10
AN AMAZON ADVENTURE.
The Principal Characters Arc Drummer
and = Snake,


paper snake story from Missouri which
he knew to be true, for he was one OF
the parties who had been there and
told 1t to the correspondent, when
man with a bronzed face and two fin
gers gone from his left hand threw
cigar stub at the cuspidor and assumed
talking attitude.
Speaking Of snakes" he said quiet
ly, reminds me of an experience had
down In the valley of the Amazon
about three years ago, when l was
there for the firm / represent on the
road TO see about some enormous tim
Der tracts they own in that section.
Naturally my visit was to the wilder
parts of the valley, and with retinue
of natives l penetrated those for
est depths for hundreds OF miles.
In one Of my explorations / became
detached from my forces, and after a
days wandering / lay down to sleep,
expecting to find my men in the morn
ing without any trouble, for by this
time had become quite an expert in
Amazonian woodcraft When the next
morning arrived, however, the sky was
overcast with heavy clouds and the
woods were 80 dark that / could
do little more than stumble along
and trust to luck. / did this all
day and when night came again l
was about as far from camp as ever;
perhaps further for all knew, because
by this time really did not know any
thing except that was lost Lost, too,
in forest that was practically endless.
did not suffer though, that Is, physi-
cally, for the weather was not cold and
there were wild fruits and berries in
abundance. The following day the sun
shone and l made better progress, but
progress was Of no especial value, for l
did not know where was going. The
third day began to think l was gone
for good, but late that evening broke
through the woods and reached the
river bank. That, at least, was of some
comfort, for the river knew where 1t
was going, or at least it was going
somewhere, whether 1t knew 1t or not,
and that where was in the direction OF
the Atlantic ocean and civilization,
You might think at this point was
saved, and that had no story TO tell,
but you would be mistaken, for what
good was the river To me II had no
means of transportation; and how could
] furnish it when the only tools had
were a spoon and knife with four
inch blade7
Timber was plenty, and might have
made canoe, but how was doit with
pocket knife? Besides, was afraid
to go into the forest unarmed, for
along the river banks the snakes were
numerous and big as al outdoors ]
saw any quantity OF them from fifteen
to twenty feet long, and did my very
best to keep out of their way. waited
on the river in little open place for
three days, hoping some sort OF craft
might be coming by, but in that part
of the Amazon no boats of any kind
ply. I don't know how long would
have stayed there, but the last night
there was a terrific rumpps gaised
around me between some sort Of ami
mails, and / was scared so bad that
made up my mind to move as soon as
day broke When II became light
enough to see slipped out Of the h9l-
Lowry stump ! had been barricaded in
and took look AROUND, At first saw
nothing unusual, but as 1t grew lighter
saw big log at least four feet
through and forty feet long lying
across the upper side Of nay open space.
l thought tree had fallen, and went
over to investigate and see IL 1t had
fallen on some animal and crushed it,
thus accounting for the disturbances Of
the uight When I got close to 1t l was
paralyzea, for ~ srFe as you are born
it was snake An RpqeQRfa you
know, one of these fellows who meyer
knows when he is big enough hustled
out Of bis way in hurry, but he never
moved, and after watching him half an
hour concluded he had swallowed his
prey and was dead asleep, as these
snakes do AS sat there looking at
the helpless monster a great idea came
to me, and proceeded at once to put
it into execution. 1t necessitated the
death of the snake, but that was not a
seEiops Job when he was in such
stppor, And before he knew what had
hurt him had driven NY foHr-inch
blade into his brain and settled him
forever. He dashed around some, but
none to hurt, and after time he was
dead. Then weat to work TO skin
him, which did very carefully, leayr
ing his head on Inside of him found
a panther he had swallowed during the
night, and which no doubt would have
H.. = if the snake hadn't got him. 1t
nau ll-~ '0ther mean to think l
had returned the snakes Az
the way was doing, but 1t was no time
to consider fine points, and / didn't
worry, but went ahead with my snake
sl1inning. When got the hide all off
hustled into the thicket and cut me a
lot of sticks an inch or so in diameter
and from foot to four feet long, and
these I stuck along the edges Of the
skin where had cut it open, and fas-
tened long sappling down the inside
on the bottom, Then l dragged my
skin out into the sunshine and left it
to dry, but when 1t had dried had
Just about as fine canoe as you ever
saw 1t was a hard lob to get it to the