MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE PYTHON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14302, 23 February 1910, Page 9

MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE PYTHON.

Mr. Roosevelt records an' encounter with a python in the interesting account: of his East African ■ hunting trip which is now ■ appearing in the January'. Scribner's Magazine "A few yards off, coiled 'up in'-'the long grass under :a: small tree, was a python. I could not soo it distinctly; and using a solid bullet I just missed backbone, the bullet going through the, body : about .its middle, immediately .the' snake . lashed at mo with open jaws, and then, uncoiling, came gliding rapidly .in our direction. • I do not think it was charging; I think it was merely.trying. to escape

"But Judd, who was .utterly unmoved by lion, leopard, or rhino, evidently held this snake in respect, and yelled to me to get out of tho way. Accordingly I jumped back a few feet/: and - the snake camp over the ground whore 1 had stood; its evil genius then mado it halt for a moment- and raise its head to a height of perhaps- three feet, and I killed it by- a shot through the neck. .-. " Tho porters woro much; -, wrought up about tho snake, and did not at all like my touching it and taking it up, first by tho tail and then by the head. -It was; only 12ft long, weighing about 401b. . _ " Wo tied it to a long stick' and sent it in by two porters." '-'; .■■'■■ y