| Show HOUSES 0 STILTS built so in ecuador to avoid dangerous reptiles A Kee identa ot some of the undesirable Kelsh bors lie haft in the equatorial wilda als among recent arrivals in san francisco was coola of playa de oro in the wilds of ecuador seven hundred railus south of panama mr cook lias been engaged in mining for gold and battling with boa constrictors vampire bats ecuador timers and other queer products of that strange land of dense tropical growths he has brought a lot of skins of mammoth boas with him as well as rare woods heavy as iron hides of the tiger and other things without number some of the big snakes he killed himself and were from twelve to seventeen long the skins are dried and he will now have them tanned one of them is more than two feet wide they are mottled in a strange way appropriate to that part of the tropics he said to a san francisco examiner reporter that he is going to have them made into purses ladies belts and slippers and then present them to liis friends an impression prevails he said ra cantly that these boa constrictors are a savage snake that lies in wait in a tree and springs upon and wraps itself about alie unwary in two years that I 1 was there I 1 never knew a case of this sort in fact they are rather sluggish and wont attack if you let them alone nevertheless they are not very pleasant things to have in alie house and they will get into your house if you are not very careful all the kiouses down there are built upon stilts as well to avoid dampness as the snakes still this won t keep them out 1 was living in such a house down there when a boa came in after a rooster I 1 was talking with a carpenter and lie struck at it with a shovel it through a hole and I 1 went around and hit it with a shovel and finally killed it with a machete the big knife with a blade over two feet long used in that country another boa I 1 killed with a heavy ironwood cane the reptile was twelve feet long fully a foot and a half through I 1 would not be afraid to attack one of these with a cane if he were fully fifty feet long the black snakes are far worse they are from twelve to twenty feet long and these attack from trees and wrap themselves around their victim yet another snake to be avoided and one that is very poisonous is the occa it is about six feet long and has a big diamond shaped head and fangs at least two inches long the vi which is similar to the occa has a backbone like some fish being rough like a saw it is very vicious and poisonous and gets to be twelve feet long it is brownish and looks very much like a brown piece of velvet or plush some of the natives killed one while I 1 was there and it fought and struck desperately this seventeen foot boa was killed by a jamaica who went right up to it and struck it with a machete it was nine indies in diameter to get rid of these snaky visitors I 1 had a new house made it was not only put up on piles but was constructed ted otherwise to make it very difficult to access in alie first place I 1 made the doors tight the belling I 1 had constructed of closely fitting bamboo and the floor of palm equally tight then I 1 bad the windows covered with wire screen no glass is used there whatever for that would make the house stuffy and they need all the air that can be got besides this when I 1 went to bed I 1 used a mosquito bar sand flies and different other insects get into the house here no matter how particular you are with all these precautions I 1 was able to sleep secure of boa constrictors strict ors and other reptiles as well as the vampires or bloodsucking blood sucking bats let me tell you here in regard to the vampires eliat it is no joke to come in contact with them if you are not careful they fasten themselves on you and you are half dead before you know it |
