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Show i Tile snake was tlually dislodged Dy counter mining and killed with a charge of buckshot. When measured it was found to be twenty-one feet in length and about two feet in Birth.- MINING FOR A PYTHON. A Snake That Refused to Be Drawn Prom His Hole by a Hope and an Elephant. DESTROYED THE FAMILY BIBLE. Servant Girls in Montana A Queer Fog Horn Stood Up for Her Sex. Chamber's Journal. . It was during the cold weather, when .snakes are partially or wholly torpid, that this adventure happened; had it been iq the hot weather, when snakes are lively, the story might have had a different differ-ent ending. C4en. Maointyre and his party went one day to examine a hole or crevice under a rock where it was supected a python lay hidden, and sure enough it was there, for they could see a bit of the tail end protruding from the hole. They let it alone at first, thinking that, when the sun shone, it might come forth to bask In its warmth. In this, however, they j were disappointed, for on the following day the snake was not to be seen; but, nn closer examination, the tail was found sticking out as before. Various efforts were made to dislodge it. A fire was lit in front and the smoke fanned inward, I but this had no effect. t The earth was even scraped away and the hole widened, when they could see the coils of the monster as thick as a man's thigh; but except that their oierations were occasionally interrupted interrupt-ed by the startling presence of the creature's head, which it occasion- ally poked toward the entrance, darting out its little forked tongue, it gave small signs of animation. They had even determined to try to draw it. Wo all three, therefore, proceeded somewhat nervously, I must own to lay hold of its tail. To this familiarity it showed its objection by a decided inuli-ration inuli-ration to wag its caudal extremity, which had such an electrical effect on our nerves that we dropped it like a hot potato, po-tato, and what shall I call it? retired. A shot would iu all probability have induced in-duced the snake to quit its refuge, but then the shot must have torn and disfigured dis-figured its beautiful skin, which the general gen-eral wished to secure uninjuredasaspec-iraen. uninjuredasaspec-iraen. In the meantime more efficient tools for digging had been sent for, and these now arrived borne upon an elephant. A bright idea now struck the party they might draw the snake out with the elephant Sufficient rope for the purpose was loosened from the elephant's pad, and this rope, about the thickness of a man's thumb, was hitched around the python's py-thon's tail, its remaining length brought up again to the pad and fastened there, thus doubling its strength. Now came the tug of war! A sudden jerk might have torn the skin; the mahout was therefore warned to put on the strain gradually. Little did we know what a tough and obstinate customer we had to deal with. Tighter and tighter grew the ropes, when "crack" went one of them. Still the strain was increased, when "crack" the other had snapped also, leaving the snake in statu quo. |