Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1908 — SNAKES AT $20 A FOOT. [ARTICLE]

SNAKES AT $20 A FOOT.

Big Ones Consequently Come HighSome Snakes Sold by the Pound. “Snakes,” said a dealer in wild animals and reptiles, “increase in value out of all proportion to their size. So while you could buy a seven-foot python for sl2 you couldn’t begin to buy one of twice that length for twice that price. A fourteen-foot python would be worth slso* and a python twenty-five feet in length would eost JSOO.

“Some sorts of smaller snakes are regularly sold by the pouna, and we sometimes buy big snakes in that way >f sailors that bring them in on ships ,'oming from snake countries. We weigh the big snake in a bag and jay so much a pound for it. “But b g snakes are not sold in that way by dealers, nor are they sold by he foot, though, of course, the length ovefns the snake’s value. Of two snakes of the same length one might be worth more money than the other, for snakes vary in their physical characteristics just as human beings do, .nd their prices vary accordingly. “Of two big snaltes of the same .ength and the same thickness one night weigh fifty pounds more than .he other, and then of two big snakes of the ,same length the other was bicker and bulkier and as between hese two, other things being equal, he bulkier snake would be worth the nore, because it would make the more .triking and imposing show. “Thus, while the length does govern, it is not the only thing to be taken into account, and so big snakes are sold neither by the pound nor by the foot, but at prices fixed on each individual snake.

“We Import annually hundreds of big snakes, the great majority of them ranging in length between seven and twenty feet. The very biggest snakes are becoming scarcer and more difficult to obtain. Our collector in India, while in the course of that time he has gathered many big snakes, has in the last six months obtained but one snake measuring twenty-five feet in length. “Big snakes and little ones are sold to zoological parks and to show people all over the country. For the very largest snakes the demand is greater than the supply.’’