Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/388

364 of a snake is always less poisonous than the first. After being bitten by the snakes, Underwood applied a remedy which was known only to himself, and soon recovered from the effects of the bite.

"The manner of his death is a very convincing proof of the perfection of his remedy. One day, while under the influence of liquor, he allowed himself to be bitten by a snake; in consequence of his intoxication he was unable to find his antidote, and so he died of the bite. His secret perished with him; he had demanded £10,000 ($50,000) for it, which the Government refused to pay, as they thought the price exorbitant.

"Every new chum—freshly arrived men in the colonies are known as 'new chums'—has a nervous apprehension about snakes when he first sets foot in the bush, and has quite likely provided himself with a pair of long boots as a protection against venomous reptiles. Within a week or so this feeling wears off, and after a while a man thinks no more about snakes than in England or the United States. Most of the deaths from snake-bites occur among the laborers in the fields, and altogether they are by no means uncommon. In some localities one might go about for years without seeing a snake, while in others the deadly reptiles are so numerous that caution must be exercised. The worst regions are said to be the cane-fields of the Mackay district and the reed-beds on the Murray River.

"There are centipedes and scorpions in Australia whose bite is poisonous, and there is a black spider about the size of a large pea, with a brilliant crimson mark on its back. It lives in old timber, and frequently takes up its abode in a house, where it does not wait to be disturbed before attacking one. Its bite is very painful; death not infrequently follows it, but more probably the victim becomes hopelessly insane or paralyzed. Mr. Finch-Hatton tells how he was bitten by one of these spiders, and within ten seconds he had cut out the flesh and rubbed the wound with ammonia, which he always kept about him. But his leg got very bad; the pain for days was intense, and afterwards the whole leg swelled and became