Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/647

Rh stars of the southern hemisphere above, bright and beautiful beyond the conception of the inhabitants of colder climes, and the cool morning breeze playing pleasantly, welcome enough after the close thundery heat of a summer's night. I had not long to wait; soon the grey light of dawn became decided, and shouldering the rifle on which I had been leaning I proceeded through the long wet grass across the flat in the direction of the stream, the murmur of which had reached me where I had been standing. I have said the plain was seemingly unbroken; it was not really so, however, though even had it been full daylight, a stranger would have been unable to discover the fact. In truth, one of those deep gorges peculiar to countries subject to violent rains formed an impassable barrier a few hundred yards away from where we had camped for the night, though the abruptness of its sides rendered it invisible until one almost stood upon their edge. It was a part of Swaziland, however, over which I had already travelled, when, like at present, returning from shooting-expeditions into the interior, and I was aware that the masses of jungle with which age had clothed every fissure harboured many of the larger bush antelopes, as well as innumerable baboons and leopards; so, provisions being scarce, I had started thus early in the hope of securing one of the former for food. There was still so little light when I reached the spot that it was with difficulty I succeeded in hitting upon a track made by the game which I had noticed the preceding evening, and by which I had determined to descend, and I had not gone down it many yards before I found the darkness produced by the dense foliage so great as to render any further progress impossible, except at the risk of a broken neck, so, seating myself under a rock, I waited on the increasing daylight. Life was already stirring; faint rustles, and once a breaking twig, denoted the whereabouts of antelopes, or, it might be, of their enemy, the leopard, while the calls of birds sounded from every side; by-and-by the rustling became louder, and it was evident some animal was coming up the track by which I was going to descend, until at last it got so near that I could distinguish the rattle of sharp hoofs among the boulders and stones below me. Suddenly there was a dull sound as of some heavy body falling, followed by a confused noise of struggling, a half-choked bleat, which I thought I recognized as coming from the throat of an unkumbi {Cephalopus Natalensis) and then silence again. I could see nothing from the position I was in, and did not care to alter it until I could see distinctly enough to fire if necessary, so I remained quiet for a few minutes more, and then began cautiously to descend again. But a few steps sufficed to explain the cause of the noise, for as I got round the corner of the rock, under the upper side of which I had been sitting, I came in sight of an immense boa-constricter, some ten or twelve feet of whose huge body was in view, employed in licking the carcase of its victim, a young doe of the species I had expected, which lay, a shapeless mass, within a yard of the very path I was following. No doubt, had I blundered on through the darkness another five yards, I should at that moment have occupied its place, even though the great snake might, perhaps, have found it impossible to swallow me after killing me; however, the idea was enough, and without remembering at the moment how I should disturb the whole bush, I levelled the rifle at its broad head and fired. It was not until the smoke cleared and I could see its whole body, as it writhed and twisted in its last agonies (the bullet having fortunately severed the backbone an inch or so behind the neck) that I comprehended its enormous size and strength, and that the portion I had already seen was little more than half its full length. I had no means of accurately measuring it at the time, and after-events prevented my returning to it, but I have no hesitation in saying that eighteen feet would be decidedly under the mark. I have, indeed, no doubt it was at least twenty feet, while its girth was considerably more than that of a man's thigh. It was considerably the largest snake I ever saw, though I have more than once killed specimens of the same species varying from twelve to fifteen feet. They are, however, considering their numbers, but rarely seen, lying chiefly on the edges of thick cover, into which they betake themselves if disturbed while basking, as they are fond of doing, outside in the sun. Their food consists of almost anything they can catch, from a rat or a little bird to a small antelope, though no doubt they occasionally kill a large one, which, unless of unusual size themselves, they are unable to swallow, and I doubt their lives being such an alternate succession of feasts and fasts as has been imagined. No doubt when they do catch an antelope and eat it the after-process of digestion occupies a considerable