BATTLE WITH A SNAKE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3687, 23 November 1912, Page 10

BATTLE WITH A SNAKE.

staff of the Zoological Gardens at Frankfort-on-Main had a. very unpleasant adventure with a huge, snake, one man being lucky enough to escape with the loss of half a pound of his own flesh. Tim reptile, which is said to bo 26 feet in length, was a comparatively recent acquisition to the collection, and since its arrival had refused all food, and lain curled up hi sluggish apathy on the floor of its new home. Its apparent lack of interest in life seems to have caused anxxty on its behalf, and, in hope of stimulating its appetite and general vitality, it was prescribed a course of baths. As there was no prospect of cjutjoj g out the doctor’s orders except by force, four keepers entered tne cage and proceeded to bundle the lorp-f snake unceremoniously into a tank which had been provided for As ablutions. . For some time the creature off-nod a merely passive resistance to the efforts of its well meaning nurses, but at last either its resentment or ‘te hunger was suddenly aroused, and instead of a mass of stubborn coils, it became a very lively and agg; esslvc adversary. It seems to have made an attempt to encircle the entire muu tet simultaneously in its. folds, and so crush them to a jelly in one comprehensive squeeze. 'lliree of the men succeeded in getting out of its way. but it flung itself upon the km r.h„ and buried its teeth deep in his arm. The unfortunate man’s colleagues ■were able to prevent .the reptile from coiling itself round him, hut nothing that they could do wbu’d induce it to relax its hold. The probability is that its teeth inclined upward, and that it could not have withdrawn them even if it had wanted to.

While some of the keepers wrestled with the wriggling body of the snake, others made desperate efforts to prize its mouth open with a chisel and a piece of stick. As this manoeuvre was quite fruitless two of the men seized the reptile and the other their comrade, and both parties pulled with all their might. The living rope on which this'grim tug-of-war was being practised snapped at the weakest point, and biter and hit at last cameMsunder through a large lump of flesh being torn out of the wounded man’s arm. He was so exhausted by the loss of blood and Iris fierce struggle for life that he sank senseless to the ground. No time was lost in conveying him to hospital, where it was found that his injuries, thoifgh severe, were not dangerous. The snake appeared to he satisfied with the light meal it had obtained, and, though it had lost several teeth in the conflict, it at once relapsed into its former condition of apathy.