Show LV 70MIE WEST INDIAN SNAKES I i BY FREDERICK G OBER I Jr ilAi lnqr of Camps Among tho Carlb I > r killed In the 7 MTlie largest snake ever Of 1V IIndies was u boa on the Island monster Tobago 1 came upon the suddenly in a clump oC bamboo Just as ho was about to swallow a poor inoffensive I little agouti an animal about the sloe of a rabbit I Urcd JustIn from the little creature In limo to suvc had opened the cavernous nmw that to take It In My aim was good ajul terrllle commotion In after 41 brief but the undergrowth caused by Us dying limp and still I struggles the boa lay dragged It out Into the open and measured meas-ured IL It was fourteen feet In length or more than twice the height of the ordinary man I had heard of boa constrictors of the length of thirly eel wan of fourteen feet but this one the largest I saw in these islands I afterward learned that this boa is called the JumboJocko by the negroes ne-groes and that he has a preference 1 for the bamboo clumps whore he entwines himself around tho drooping canes sometimes gorged and nsleep but more often very wide awakq and on the lookout for prey afraid of him Tho island people are his snake and tell strange stories about ship They never trust themselves near his lair after sunset and take particular care that little children shall I where not wander into the region Jumbo Jocko reigns He has been found over sixteen feet in length often with large fowls in his maw and QUO was known to have lulled and swallowed a three peccary which Is one of the wildest wariest animals in the woods e > S The most venomous and at the same time most vengeful serpent I ever encountered en-countered was In the island of Martinique Mar-tinique French West Indies it is there allied the Fer de Lance or the snake with the Ironlance head The ophlologlsts tell us that It belongs to the ciotalldas or rattlesnake family I I f I r 1j i1r e t i 1 r t 1j I t t t j I ii i 1 I L 1 f M Z I I The Boa Jocko Jumbo and His Victim and have given It the exasperating name of craspedocoplmlous lanceopa tUB Call It by whatever name we may It Is certainly the mostdreaded besthaled reptile of the tropical Isl ands which It Inhabits and the mere mention of Its I name Is sulilclenl to throw any native community Into spasms of fear That the Inhabitants of the region It Infests have good rea Hon to fear this dread ophidian may he opined from the fact that unlike the other species pf the family to which it belongs this one Is actively and persistently aggressive The rattlesnake rat-tlesnake or moccasin for Instance will generally await attack unless suddenly surprised before Inlllcllng its bite bul the IronLance on the contrary Is I said to peek out and spring upon in offcnslvo persons in whatever section it may be abundant Neither is II ho sluggish as Its congeners being as ac tivo and alert as it Is I venomous and even when quiet it is always coiled up itr an attitude of defense I Its average length Is about five feet 1 being ICSH than that of the northern rattlesnake although specimens have been shown over seven feet In length It IP however very thick through the I body while Its head is broad and triangular tri-angular greatly resembling tho head I of i a lance or spear lo which liie 1 na tSvcB have aptly likened It In the Isl I and of Saint Lucia just south of Martinique Mar-tinique the natives call this serpent i illm rat tall because of the atlenu ated tall resembling somewhat that of the rodent mentioned and which ter iniiiaictf in u nplne or Haw In color < it is generally some shade of dirty I yellow but sometimes brown or black iKh probably assimilative to Its surroundings sur-roundings in order to escape obscrva lionLike Like all members of Its family the lancehead la very prollllc from fifty to sixty young having been found In females taken in Martlnque where it J so abundant that every portion of that beautiful Island infested by It No section is exempt not even the populous towns like tfainj Pierre with Us lighted Streets land stores Its large hotels churches and government buildings It has bitten people In their beds living in the settlements on the shore and It has caused the death of explorers on the summit of Morne Pclue 1000 feet above the sea far in the interior It not onJy Infests the botanical gardens in the suburbs of Saint Pierre but enters courts and houses while the sugar plantations literally swarm with this terrible serpent ser-pent which finds there Us chief food rats and lizards The serpent ls I far more dangerous in the Holds than In the towns as it conceals I con-ceals Itself beneath the dry trash cane leaves and graaa and springs upon up-on the laborers when they come to cultivate cul-tivate or cut the cane This Is win Hundreds je annually of Us bite and the natives regard It with universal horror and dread The wounds from UB fang must be attended to without delay ad the venom is almost Instantly J j fatal especially if a large blood vessel be punctured If the wound be deep no remedy Is known that will avail but Ie slight and a ligature can bo ap plied I between the wound and tho I heart treatment may possibly save the patient This treatment consists or II laying open the fangpuncture and rubbing with a mixture of limejuice rum and ball while if intoxication or stupor can be brought about by administering ad-ministering rum punch with a large proportion llmeJulee In It the bit ten one sometimes recovers Before the application uf the rum limejuice and salt the wound should be fiucked or cupped to extract the virus But It usually happens that the victims of the lance head are unavailable for effectual treatment and probiibiv 1 cs History of Porto Rico etcj mnelenlh of them perish from the ef fictn of the venom Time foregoing however was prescribed with generally gener-ally good results in the case of Brjtlsh soldiers l bitten In Saint Lucia where the serpents are quite aa numerous aIn a-In Martinique 0 f 4 Many attempts have been made though without avail lo extirpate this I pest Even the terrible mongoose which has been Introduced Into Jamaica with the result that nearly every living reptile was exlermlnaied as well as all the rats and other vermin except itself It-self even the mongoose was unable to i cope with this prolific and most omnipresent omni-present scourge One of the strangest I facts about the distribution of this serpent ser-pent Is that while a native of Guiana i I In the north part of South America It I should hUH become so entirely at home I ill these two islands 1 have mcnlloned Another yet stranger Is that while 1 these two Martinique and Saint Lucia I are 1 Infested I with It i there Is no record J of a single specimen having been taken in i lie I islands to the north and lQ the south of them I myself have hunted for months In the Islands of Dominica and Saint Vin remit the first only twenty miles to the north of Martinique and the second about the same distance south of Saint Lucia and have never seen a trace of the Lance Head in either Indeed the natives of Dominica have a tradition l tradi-tion that when In the last century the white settlers were at war with the fierce Carlos last vestiges of the cannibals canni-bals discovered here by Columbus the I I rancorous Indians went over to the other islands arid brought back numbers I num-bers of serpent which they let loose I I for the purpose of poisoning their enemies ene-mies But even these must have found the soil and climate uncongenial for they all perished at least t none survived time war I used to run across rather large snakes In Dominica but they were comparatively com-paratively harmless such us the Tote Chlen or the DogHead SnaKe which was a small boa not over ten or twelve feet In length and which always crawled away from me In one direction is fast as I ran in another whenever we chanced to meet This was proba lily the serpent with a jewel In its head of which the Indians had a tradition perhaps derived In a rbundabout way rom the old legend of the basilisk However tlroie they are those venomous ven-omous l anceIIeads ranging the forests and mountains of the two moyt beautiful isles In the Caribeos and there they are quite likely to remain 1 fear for centuries to conic IIow they got there Is still an unsettled problem prob-lem with all those Intervening Isles between be-tween their Insular and their continental continen-tal habitat but how to get rid of them worries the poor natives much more than the question of their origin They may have floated thither on some giant tiec wrenched by hurricanes out of the Gulanean forests and set adrift on the Orinoco current or they may have come northward with the Arrowacks who preceded the Carlos in the Lesser Antilles and by whom they wore exterminated ex-terminated Everybody cautioned me when I announced an-nounced my Intention to hunt In the Interior In-terior of Martinique and Saint Lucia against doing so foolhardy u thing and piediclcd a fatal termination to my adventures ad-ventures As the Hloamcr I was oncoming on-coming up from the Island of Barbados rounded tho southern end of fjalnt Lucia I was shown those wonderful Hcusurroundeu pinnacles called the PItons two 01 three thousand feet In height and which shoot up like spires from the oceans depths They were parllcularly pointed out to me as the scene of the fight betwceil some English sailors and the serpents that swarmed there In the latter part of the last century An English Admiral had concluded to send up some guns to the top of one of the peaks and ordered a boatload of men ashore for tho purpose The poor I jackles had to obey of course but as they reached well up the height one after another was stricken by the hidden hid-den foe In waiting and fell from the frightful sleeps Into the sea Not one survived and another boatload sent to take their places shared the same fate Then the obstinate officer seeing that to persist In his wild scheme would be but a useless waste of life desisted and ever since these isolated Pitons have been left alone with the terrible tenants of their verdureclad summits When everybody cries wolf one either becomes afraid an abandons the field of he gets used to the cry and does notmind It The latter wan my condition condi-tion notwithstanding1 the numerous specimens of the serpent that were shown me as having been recently shot near and within the town and the vlnl ble trepidation of the little black boys who acted as my guides in the woods and fields To be sure they were nearly near-ly naked and ultogethcr barefoot while I was not only well clad but wore a pair of alligator boots which covcrcc my legs nearly to the knees 1 felt almost al-most invulnerable In those boots and when my guides retreated In conCuHloi before some don of serpents real or Imaginary T was in the habit of strid lug ahead crushing down the ferns am bushc to show them how baseless were their fears But one day as thp small black boy came back to cower amy a-my feet shivering as with an ague Hi arid ojaculallng between ills teeth Ferdelancc ferdclance and I was 1 about to repeal my customary pcr 2 < v > rnianccH he clung to I my legnHn real terror Following the direction of his anguiHiieil iook I saw what I had escaped es-caped for a corpulent though alert amid nsRictwive serpent wax stretched along I a llnb ahead of mo and beneath which > only to doubtleSS l8Icd passed I should have p < receive its fangs in my face It maybe not may-be necessary to add that I filled his nnukeshlp with shot before advancing and that thereafter 1 was less reckless In my explorations I The second and last tlmo t I came into I I close quaitcrs with the lion I Lame I was oteo In Martinique but nearer the coast I wa slopping on an old plantation plan-tation which had once belonged to the family of Josephine Empress J of till French Eel ng of a lomantlr I tin I rn or mind I had investigated the ruins of the house III which she was born and of the sugar mill In whleh her youth was passed after proceeding to the fernhung pool in the stream where she took her morninu baths I shot u bird on th > way there and sent my sable guide Into the bushes to retrieve It when an he parted the grass In front of the thicket I haw him fall backward It I did not need his fry of horror to warn me what he had seen for J know thai only one object here con 11 frighten him and Jerking him baek by the shoulder nut nf range I fired a charge of birdshot directly into the I gleaming I ryos and gaping mouth of a For de Lance four I feet In length The serpent was so mangled that ho did not mnke a pretty specimen for preserving In I alcohol but t I dont think the small black boy regretted that clr cumstancc so much as 1 did |