Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1875 — Snakes in Southern Africa. [ARTICLE]

Snakes in Southern Africa.

The puff-adder is a most dangerous snake, being of the color of the dead leaves on which he is fond of curling himself up, and of so sluggish aud sleepy a nature that he will not trouble himself to move out of one’s way; it is difficult to always avoid treading on him. His bite is most deadly, and he has the most dangerous habit of striking backward, not forward like other snakes. A few people have, I believe, recovered from the effect of a puff-adder’s bite, but very few ; they generally die in about a quarter of an hour, going quietly to sleep. The only chance of a cure is to keep constantly walking, and to drink quantities of raw brandy, and to take doses of eau-de-luce. When the Kaffirs kill a snake they lake some of the venom from its head, which they carry in a little bag round their necks, and, if bitten, swallow a little; which they say is a certain cures There is even a worse snake in Natal than the putl'-adder—fortunately a rare one—the black imamba, oife of the very few that will venture an attack without provocation. Many people say .that it will even follow a person for miles; hut I rather doubt this, unless the person’s road happens to run between it and its home, aud then I-dare say it would do so.. Perhaps every one does not know that cats are snake-proof. A bite has no® effect on them; we had an opportunity of proving this. A short time alter we came to Oakham we were out strolling about, looking at our new possessions, when we were startled by hearing a peculiar shriek from one of the children, evidently a scream of terror. WdVushed up to the house and info the dining-room, whence the sounus' came, and Jthere was our little boy in a frantic state of fright, with a long, green iujamba wriggling about on the floor in front of him, engaged in a fierce tussel with a large tortoise-shell cat, one we had brought from the town. Which would have got the best of it had they been left to fight it out I cannot say, for the coolie rushed in and killed the snake. The cat had bitten out one of its eyes, and in return had got a wound on its face that swelled up to an enormous size; but beyond that he seemed none the worse for his encounter, anil iu a few days puss was quite himself again; and we telt very grateful to him ever after for having, in all probability, saved our little boy's life.— Frazer's Magazine: >

Slaxg is both strong and weak. Its strength consists in the ability to express in it, sharp and nervous.and lull, the idea intended to be conveyed. Its weakness is in the fact that it is the language of the unrefined, the uneducated, the low.—Philadelphia JS'orth American. The number of sheep imported into Kansas was never so great as now. Hundreds of sheep farms are being estabhahed.