FATAL ENCOUNTER WITH A SNAKE Hugo Serpents In India.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 3

FATAL ENCOUNTER WITH A SNAKE Hugo Serpents In India.

Tut", annual statements put forth by the Government ot India as, to (.lie number of people who fall victims to t.ho poison of in sects and reptiles* seem appalling to one who has novev visited that eountiy and realised for himself the insecurity ot human lifo against tho>e ever-present foes of humanity. I was ior (several yea is employed in the survey.-- made of the Ki.ihmapootra and (Janges rivers, both of ■which have several mouths, and I have had vaiious adventures in connection with wild animal and reptile life. There was novel 1 a week, and sometimes hardly a day, that .some one of our party was not put in peril of hi.s life. In three months, having live white men and jsivty natives in our party, we lost one white man. had a second crippled tor lite, and buiied foity odd of the nati\e-, o\ciy one of whom was a victim ot reptile or insect poison. I was personally pre.-ent when as many as hfteeuot them were snake-bitten, and not one of them liml three hours after being struck. Our party was pro\ided with a small steamer, a barge in which tin 1 natiw.-lhed, and a fleet of three open bouts. Wo were towed fro til point to point/ by the steamer, but there was somel imes a week in which she did nor have .steam up. We not only took the depth, but .sounded out and marked channel-, and took ob«er\ation- on \aiious points, such as the wearing away ot the banks, the filling in, result- 1 of riv-heK etc. \\'i> went on shore more 01 le-- ot the time, but d.uigtr linked aboaul the boat -5 and -.foame'-, as well as in the jungle. One morning as the suney boats -tarred out I telt too unwell to accompany them, and m hen they had pulled nw- >'} 3 went buck to my stateroom, and iciy dnwu. Our craft wa-: a light -di:uigh(, tkt-bottomed steamer, and when not in u-o she was always tied up at the bank. She had been in her present position tour days, and was mooied to the light bank of the Brahmapootra, about thirty miles horn the sea. There was no human habitation near us and the dense jungle extended tor mile? above and below and right to the i bank whetv we re-ted. My -tateioom was on the starboaid side, and theiefoie next to the jungle, and, ot course, all doors and window- were open. The engineer ot the boat had taken a canoe j and anchoied 300 feet away to ri-h, while all others belonging to the boat were off on the <uir\ey. I should ha\o o\copted the cook, who wa-, of eoui-e, a nathe. He was a lithe young fellow whom we called Jack, and In? had been ic.iud in Calcutta, and could -peak English. When I wont to bed he was doing i>p In* bieakfast dishes, and making iead\ for dinner, and I heard him .singing a n.ttne soiig in a soft key as ho moved about. 1 did not fall asleep, but I became diow-y, and but tor an alarm would have pa-.- into slumber. The window of my state-room, hung on hinges, was at the forward end of the room, and was wide open. My bunk was on tli3 left-hand side looking torward, and the right hand wall was fitted with hooks for my clothes 1 lay w it.i my head to the stern of the boat, and therefore faced the j window, while the open dooi ot the stateroom was 'it my right hand and swung back against my bunk. 1 hine pun in all the details in oidei that the reader may fully compiehend what happened. My eyes weic hilt -hut, and the tlie-i wen 1 buz/ins 1 around me in a cheary way when I felt, rather than heaid, something crawl aboard the boat, and the next i'lstant a -lridow darted pa-t the open window. My eye" tlew open, my heait gave a jump, and I was really -tavtled. Before I could made a sati-faetoiy explanation to my-elf the shadow returned, and I now beheld the wicked head ot a Lucre -oi - pent at the window. The reptile wa-. looking in, and hi.s head swayed trom light to left as he peered about to satistv his curiosity. The distance fiom my head to the window w.is not out nine feet, and, of eom-c, 1 had ,i plain view of him. I realised at once from the size of the head that the -ci pent was a monster, and I was certain that he would attack me. Had I spuing up, he would eithev have lied or struck me. Being too startled by M- sudden advent to plan ju-fc what to do, I did nothing and theiebv saved my life. I was fully die— c<l except my boot-, and as I had no eoxeung o\er me the snake mu.-t ha\e seen me : but aftci a moment I became satisfied that he would not meddle with me if I kept quiet. I made no effort to suppress my lneathing. but othei wife I was us quiet as a coi pse. The &ei pent w&s a couple ot minutes in deciding to come in, and as soon a«s his head touched the floor he began eiaw ling through the open door into the hallway. A-> he slowly pas-ed along I estimated his length .it t'iiit\ feet. I was lying paitly on my right side and partly on my back, and could every inch of him. The end of his tail had .scarcely di.-appeaicd o\er the thie-shoM when I sprang up and clo-ed the door. Fixe seconds later I closed the window and was then peifectly safe. The first thing I wanted to do wa- to rai-e an alarm and give the cook a chance ro escape. Hi-? kitchen was on the deck belf/w , but doubting- if he would hear my shouts 1 made leady to fire one of my pistol-. Then came the fear that the cook, feat ing some accident to me, would conic ni-hing up and fall a ready Uctim. The s^ipent might pass thiough the hall to the poi t guavds of tVie boat, but the chance- were that he would turn into the smoking-, ■com. Aftsr a little rejection I decided th.it it was hotter to let the man take hi.s chances. He was a vigilant fellow, always on the watch for scorpions, tarantulas and the like, and the instinct of danger might s.er\e him better than any oflort ol mine. A long half hour .slipped aw ay without my hearing or seeing anything hirthei of the serpent. Then I began to abuse myself for a coward in leaving the cook to take hi.s chances and I got out my shotgun, chopped a dozen buckshot in on top of the wads, und. opened the rloou with the detei mination of hunting out and slaying the snake. As 1 had my hand on the catch there came a sort ot scuffling and shuffling in the hall, and the noise .slowly passed through the door out upon the port guards. I believed it was the snake going back Lo the jungle, and with mygunatthecocklopenedtho door and passed out. A part of the serpent was yet on the rail, and into this I fired both barrels as fast asl could pull trigger. That ] )ortion of the snake struck by the heavy charges was about ten ieet above the tail, and at that point he was as large around as an ordinary man's ankle. He was cub almost in two, as I afterward came to know. The moment I fired I dodged back into the stateroom, and it was well I did. Moi Lally wounded as he was, the serpent returned • aboard in .such a violent manner as to rock the steamer, and, in his struggles in the narrow gangway and in the hall, lie carried the door olf its hinges and knocked a part of the railway into kindling-wood. He was thrashing about for at least ten minutes, and when I dared to venture out again his head was on the bank and the rest of his body in the gangway, while the blood wan Spattered about as if a butchery had occurred. I was ready to fire again, but 'the snake was quite dead. The reports of the first discharge had ajo£jft^ ths engineer, a.ud be game paddling

up just as I discovered that the serpent could do no further injury. Then we at once began a search' for fche l cook, ahdit was not until we had explored every part of the boat twice over that we thought to look on the bank. There we found his body, limp and lifeless, and showing half a dozen bites. From certain signs and clues in the kitchen, where some wild fowls vvero boiling on the .sto\e, we concluded that the savoury odour drew tiio pevponfc aboard and downstairs). He probably came upon the cook so silently that no alarm was given, and as there was only a sbool overturned, there could not have been much of a struggle. How the •serpent got the body off the boat I cannot say. but perhaps he dragged it, and that accounted for the shuffling noise I heard in the hall. At noon, when the boats came in and the men learned what had happened, some of the natives fired tho jungle, and the K>-ult was a conflagration which ran for miles and lasted two weeks.