EXTRAORDINARY SNAKE STORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 349, 3 February 1881, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY SNAKE STORY.

Quite recently the City Iron Works Company, of Pyrmont, Sydney, purchased from the A.S. N. Company, the steamer Wonga Wonga, 1 for the purpose of breaking her up and converting her into bar iron. . Upon taking charge of her, the men put on board for the purpose of taking her to faeces were warned that a large snake was known to have, taken op his residence, on board, as he had been seen several times during the last two years, and his cast skin was found. This warning was not. accorded much notice, and the men worked away without thinking anything of his suakeship till a few mornings ago, when, on removing some of the lining of the saloon, the “ sarpint ” made his appearance on the scene, prod ucing'keilteration amongst the stalwart “ boiler crackers ” in his immediate neighbourhood, the majority of whom evinced a strong desire to “ out ” him. Upon being dislodged and killed, he turned out to be of the diamond species, about 6 feet in length. An extraordinary thing with regard to this snake story is that for four years the Wonga has been laid up, and there has been nothing in the shape of food of any kind on board her, and there is no appearance of even a cockroach in the vessel, so that the sna' e must either have subsisted bn a course of iron, or on the food he was doomed to eat a t the fall.