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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 10, 11 January 1878, Page 4

The following particulars of a thril!isg snake stoiy have been furnished to the Murrurundi Times, New South Wales, by Mr G. A. Martin of the

Oaks : — " A man in my employ has bad a narrow escape of being bitten by a auake. The man, whose name is John Orb, a German, is fencing for me, and is living alone ! n a tent. .One night he was awoke about midnight by a little terrier dog jumping on his face and barking very loudly. He was sleeping on a kind of stretcher, made with bagging fastened on to poles. Without, moving much he lit a candle which he had beside him, when the little ,dog : rushed backwards and forwards through the tent, barking furiously, and then, jumped towards hiri. He looketl d>wn' ; and then saw the headfand 1 nedk of alarge diamond" snake "resting on^hial chest. The shake was evidently watching the movements of the xlog, as eachtime the dog ran towards} the door of the tent, the snake turned^hJß head to- , war.ls him with his mouth-open, and darting his tongue out.. Orb says thai' although dreadfully frightened, he did not lose his presence of mind, and he considered what he ehould do. During tbe whole of tbis time he had not moved There was a butcher's knife on the table beside the light, so he riut his band cautiously out and got it; the snake still watching the dogj'whichcbntinued running to and- fro; and mpving.its' head on the bar which supported the bagging. Orb waited till its head was turned from, him, and then chopped at him with- rthe .knife, succeeding in almost chopping the head off. He says he thought his legs would then have been broken, as . the snake was coiled round the stretcher and over his, legs, and' by, its violent struggles: it almost brought the two sides of the bei together, making the wood crack again and pressing on his legs as if tbey were in a vice, Tbis lasted for some time, until he could get up and draw the reptile out. It measured 6ft 6in long."