THE "SNAKE OF SNAKES"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 35, 23 February 1940, Page 34

THE "SNAKE OF SNAKES"

Australia you'll know how good it is to be in a country without snakes. Although one doesn’t really hear cf many fatal cases of snake bite, there is always that lurking fear to spoil every outing and picnic and even the beforebedtime romp in the grass. They’re not all poisonous, of course, and some are very beautiful-especially the four- or five-foot tree snake whose iz any of you have ever lived in

skin takes on the pale patchy lovely colours of the gum trunks and boughs he lives in. In countries where there are snakes there are also lizards. In Australia there are many kinds, from the small fierce hissing " frill neck" to the great friendly iguana. In South America the iguana is a great snake-killer. He simply beats upon them as they pass with his powerful tail. I have a friend who saw one beat till he was tired and nothing happened. The reason was that his "snake" was made of flax-and forty feet long! This is how it was. The man was out riding, looking after his cattle, and he had his great, lasso-a forty-foot ropetrailing on the ground behind him. Presently he passed a large iguana sound asleep. The rustle of the rope through the grass woke the great lizard and in a moment he had sprung upon it and was beating it soundly with his tail. Of course, the rope didn’t mind in the least and just went on quietly trailing after the horse and rider. When the iguana had beat four or five yards of it he was too exhausted to go on. He just stayed still with his’ head upraised in astonishment blinking after the endless

"Snake of snakes" that simply would not be killed! I expect descendants of that iguana still tell the tale to their young ones in that part of the American Pampas! : Bey -fr-cha™