The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-11
SNAKES IN DUTCH GUIANA.
Many Lives Are Lost I'm the Jungle
ON Account of Carelessness.


speaking of snakes" said mining engi-
neer, II do not think there is a spot on the
face of this earth equal to Dutch Guiana in
that respect. There they have large snakes
and small snakes. red snakes and green
snakes, amber-colored snakes and golden
snakes, snakes harmless and snakes deadly,
round-headed snakes and fat-headed
snakes, and snakes ranging through the en-
tire list of colors from mud gray to striped
orange and red.
eff you are tenderfoot in the country,
before you leave Paramarlbo for the gold
fields in the jungle the natives will warn
you against the snakes. On the way to the
fields, four hundred miles up the river in
canoe, you can shoot a dozen more
water snakes If you are watchful. Once in
camp and accustomed to precautions. be-
fore you get into your hammock at night
you turn it inside out to Gust possible par
rot snake that may have taken kindly to
your bed. During the night, If you are
called upon to leave camp. you pick your
way along the jungle trail with lantern
held low to light every inch your feet
traverse In the morning when you come
to the embers of your camp fire you will
find a bunch of snakes curled up around
one another to keep of the chill of the
night in the warm ashes. And so it is,
snakes. snakes, snakes. Throughout 10000
square miles of jungle it is one continuous
snake paradise.
Barring death by jungle fever. more
miners and prospectors are annually taken
off by snake bites than by any other cause
Human life in that country means less
than ii does here, and so II Is that mine
owners do not compel their negroes to wear
shoes, and it is that in the brushwood
surrounding some Of the older camps there
are scattered mounds bearing neither name
nor inscription, but pointed out occasionally
by veteran miners as the place of so and
So, poor devil, bitten by snake.
.One of the most grewsome sights ever
witnessed was an attack by vultures on the
body of dead snake. We were pulling up
the Saramacca river afternoon in a
mining boat. dozen negroes were pulling
their hearts out on the oars trying to yak
the heavy boat around a sharp bend
against rushing current. Foot by foot
the boat crawled along, hugging close to
the shore under :, maze or overhanglns
ers dripped perspration till their ebony
hides glistened as If creased with OIL
Suddenly a black streak shot down from
the brush and with a curse and cry of
pain the bow oar dropped his oar and
cutched his upper arm. Instantly there
was confusion, and amid confused jabber
| CT Dutch negro dialect the boat drifted
backward There stretched across the top
| of the bushes, summing himself as IL nothing
! had happened, lay long snake with a
black. shiny back and an orange-colored
| belly. The fellow seemed all of twelve to
| fourteen feet long. He languidly raised his
| head for look at the intruders, but that
| same instant there was shot. The head
| dropped and the snake lay STILL We left
him there intending to pick him up on the
| way home to get his skin.
About two miles away there was n
| speck OF vulture soaring I'm circles high
in the air. We went our way. Ten min
utes later there were five specks about one
! mile away soaring high In the air. We had
not bucked another half mile before we had
| given up hopes Of the snake skin. The bug
| yards had increased to a dozen in number
| and were darting directly over the dead
as to bsn make ssrs sse his life
| was a combined descent. In minute they
| rose, their beaks fastened into the long.
limp carcass. Higher and higher they car
| ried their grewsome load till, high up In the
blue sky. tug of war began. The snake
/ was torn into sections. One of these fell.
Before it had gone hundred feet one of
| morsel before 1t had fallen another hundred
| feet. Then he retired among the tangle
| of the forest. as did the other vultures,
| and a scene of jungle life had been acted.
| Zone of the most harmless and one of
| the prettiest snakes in Dutch Guiana is the
parrot snake He is a little. three-foot ar
rangement.. grass green, pink-eyed and.
| among snakes probably the most knowing
| These little chaps are often found In camps
| Their only objection IL that they wriggle
/ OcCOme
| very tame II encouraged. and take readily
| to civilization and sugar. In return for
| their board they keep the camps clear of
| mice and spiders.
But for each variety Of harmless snake
| in Dutch Guiana there are five of the most
/ venomous type. These are known By their
| fat triangular heads and by their slug
| gishness- poisonous snake rarely moves
| out of the way of an intruder. He waits
| to strike. and If he strikes. recovery de-
| ponds on what antidotes may be at hand
For this reason every white miner and
every foreman over gang OF men carries
In HIS hunting bag a bottle of concentrated
/ ammonia and a tourniQuet., The precau-
| ton taken by white men in that jungle
| against snake bites is to wear thick wooIlen
socks and high laced boots. Others in
preference to wearing heavy boots use
leggings made OF canvas lined with strips
of whalebone. Through these projections
| it is impossible for snake to strike deem
| enough into the flesh to insert venom
| Many an old pair Of boots SCARED with
| snake bites Is treasured memento by
its owner. But II is when men grow care
less and discard their projections that they
are dangerously bitten.
l when a man has been struck no time
is taken to suck the poison out of the
| wound. Nine times out Of ten the wound
is In the leg below the knee. The tourni-
| quet Is sIung about the les above the
wound. and. after being drawn tiGhf with
out waiting to suck the polnon hun The