The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1910-07-01
SIZHON .AIXD CIG4lYZIc REs4ST

scorpions and snakes are
II everywhere-in ones shoes,
in ones bed At Lambarene
was writing some letters to
send by native canoe to the coast to
catch the European steamer. l was
seated on the veranda Of the post.
Overhead was Towering frangipani
tree, its blossoms beautiful and heavy
with perfume. Before me stretched
the Ogowe river. Natives passed in
their dug-out canoes, their paddles
hardly disturbing the surface OF the
water. Suddenly something snapped
pushed back my chair On the ground
crawling at my feet was n cobra, one
of the most venomous snakes In the
world! There is no antidote for its
sting. My servant had seen the
snake swing itself from the Towering
tree and poise its body ready to
spring. He quickly leaped for the
was poised and snapped it off. The
snake was thrown violently to the
ground and soon dispatched.
Another time one of my paddlers
was pushing my canoe cut from the
bank. Suddenly he disappeared.
When he reappeared he was minus
his leg from his knee down. A croc-
odile had bitten 1t off.
1t is an ordinary occurrence for a
leopard to steal q native child from
a camp fire around which many adults
are smoking and talking.
Wild animals can be guarded
against. But there is no escape from
insects and vermin. They spell just
plain hell for the white man. Reaches
fly and are as ravenous as jackals,
They eat ones clothing. and devour
even corks of bottles.
White ants are also exceedingly
voracious. What looks like sturdy
fallen tree proves to be only a mere
shell. II has been eaten out by white
ants.
The Driver ants are the scavengers
of the jungle. Unlike the white ants
they eat only fatty matter. had
brood after brood of wild chickens
eaten by these tiny insects. They
have been known TO sting to death
both natives and white men. and to
pick their bones as clean as any yul
ture or jackal. Woe to the man who
awakens not at their first sting IL,
never wakens again.
These ants travel in colonies
amounting to millions. II takes days
for colony to pass a given point
They travel very quickly and Away.
have an objective point. They hav,
generals, captains and guards. an,
their march is businesslike and In
telligent. They dig bitches and buils
bridges and tunnels. They max
straight for their goal-a dead animal
some palm oil nuts, chicken house
or sleeping human beings. Every tim
they entered my bungalow l had 4
move out. for they never leave unit
they devour every bit of fatty matter
Their sting Is frightful. but after the.
have gone the house or parts of tn,
jungle visited by them Is thorough,
and sanitarily cleansed.
Dangerous as they are to men AM
animals. they have their uses. Their
Is only one effective way to fight then
and to turn them aside. That Is, b.
fire. Their line OF march is broker
up by torches Of flaming bamboo. TIL
work Is tedious. The little red.browl
only to line up and resume thei
march as though nothing had haI
pened. They return again and again
and unless the fire is there to chez
them they succeed In making their In
tended raid.
There Is chance of recovery from
malaria. blackwater fever, smallpo
and even leprosy. but In the district
infested with the tsetse fly. once inos
ulated with the germs of sleep sici
ness. there Is no cure.
A horrid thing. have seen native
lie blinking In the torrid sun. cate
almost alive with insects and hungr,
but they haven't the energy to NOV
out OF the sun, to chase away the II
sects or to reach out or ask for foot
With eyes sinking deeper day by da
into their sockets. with flesh disar
Bearing and bones appearing. the
simply fade into eternity.
Although every government wit
possessions In Africa has sent on
eminent bacteriologists 20 try to-learl
something Of this dreadful malady
yet very little has BEEN learned. e1
ceps that Il u absolutely fatal an,
that White man b liable to infee