Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 249, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1917 — IS MOST VENOMOUS SNAKE [ARTICLE]

IS MOST VENOMOUS SNAKE

Echls Carlnata of India, Found In ’ Nearly Every Part of Peninsula, 'ls Death Itself. '■* k The most venomous of snakes la held to be the Echls carlnata of India. It is about 18 inches long and of a gray color. The creature is death itself, and carries in its head the secret of destroying life with the concentrated agony of all the poisons. • This snake is tolerably common in Lidia, being found in nearly every part of the peninsula. Fortunately, however, for man, it is not, like the cobra, a house-frequenting snake, for its aggressive habits would make it Indefinitely more fatal to life thaq, Its dreaded relative. This king of the asps does not turn to escape from man as the cobra will, or flash into concealment like the koriat, but keeps its path against its human assailant, and pitting its 18 inches of length agalns't its enemy’s bulk, challenges and provokes conflict » | A stroke with a whip will cut it In two, or a clod of earth disable it; but such is its malignity that it will Invite attack by every device at its command, staking its own life on the mere chance of Its adversary coming within the little circle of its power. At most, the radius of this circle is 12 inches. Within it, at any event, lies certain death, and, on the bare hope of hand or foot trespassing within its reach, the Echls throws its body into a fig-ure-of-eight coll. Then it attracts attention by rubbing its loops together, which, from the roughness of the scales, make a rustling, hissing sound, erects its head In the center and awaits attack.