CAR-LOAD OF SNAKES IN SYDNEY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22111, 5 June 1937, Page 16

CAR-LOAD OF SNAKES IN SYDNEY

CATCHER PAID BY THE FOOT Oraojj oujft own corbespojtdibi.; SYDNEY, May 28. A sedan motor-car with trailer, covered with red dust, parked in King street, in the heart of the city, this week. • People paused to look at it because it had obviously travelled hundreds of miles, but it is more than likely that they would have hastened on had they known that in the vehicles were 700 or more live snakes.

Car and trailer belonged to Mr Rudolph de Heaume, who spends his life catching snakes for Australian and overseas zoos. He had just returned from Central Australia, and his expedition was most successful.

There were 100 death-adders among the 700 reptiles, and their sting is just as fearsome as their name. There were also 50 pythons which will be consigned to the London Zoo. At the moment, Mr de Heaume is busily engaged measuring the snakes and packing them in barrels and cages for shipment abroad. It pays him to be exact in his measurements, because he is paid for his snakes by the foot. Travelling with Mr de Heaume was his young wife, whom he married two months ago. She said that she has no time for snakes, but is willing to put Up with them because she enjoys the open air life. From Sydney they will travel by car to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and later they will tour the Malay States, in search of snakes. , Early this year, a notice appeared in a South Australian newspaper announcing the death of Rudolph de Heaume, aged 27, at Glenelg, South Australia. The facts were that de Heaume had been bitten by a cobra and had sunk into a coma. He was carried to a morgue, where he suddenly revived and sat up. He was very much alive.