On the fifth day we were, at 5 p .m ., within twelve
miles of Obbo, and we bivouacked on a huge mass of
oranite on the side of a hill, forming an inclining Op
lateau of i about an acre. The natives who accompanied
us were immediately ordered to clear the grass
from the interstices of the rocks, and hardly had they
commenced when a slight disturbance, among some
loose stones that were being removed, showed that
something was wrong. In an instant lances and stones *
were hurled at some object by the crowd, and upon
my arrival X saw the most horrid monster that X have
ever experienced. I immediately pinned his head tO1
the ground and severed it at one blow with my hunt-
ing-knife, damaging the keen edge of my favourite
weapon upon the hard rock. I t was a puff adder of
the most extraordinary dimensions. I immediately
fetched my measuring-tape from the game-bag, in
which it was always at hand. Although the snake *
was only 5 ft. 4in. in length, it was slightly above
15 inches in girth. The tail was, as usual in
poisonous snakes, extremely blunt, and the head perfectly
flat, and about 2^ inches broad, but unfortunately
during my short absence to fetch the measure
the natives had crushed it with a rock. They had
thus destroyed it as a specimen, and had broken three
of the teeth, but I counted eight, and secured five
poison fangs, the two most prominent being nearly
an inch in length. The poison-fangs of snakes are
artfully contrived by some diabolical freak of nature
as pointed tubes, through which the poison is injected
into the base of the wound inflicted. The extreme
point of the fang is solid, and is so finely sharpened
that beneath a powerful microscope it is
perfectly smooth, although the point of the finest
needle is rough. A short distance above the solid
point of the fang the surface of the tube appears as
though cut away, like the first cut of a quill in
forming a pen : through this aperture the poison is
injected.
Hardly had I secured the fangs, when a tremendous
d ap of thunder shook the earth and echoed from rock
to rock among the high mountains5 that rose abruptly
on our left within a mile. Again the lightning flashed,
and, almost simultaneously, a deafening peal roared
from the black cloud above us, just as I was kneeling
over the arch-enemy to skin him. He looked so Satanic
with his flat head, and minute cold grey eye, and
scaly hide, with the lightning flashing and the thunder
roaring around him; I felt like St. Dunstan with
the devil, and skinned him. The natives and also
my men were horrified, as they would not touch
any portion of such a snake with their h an d s:
B B 2