“Slowly, very slowly, he worked his hand to his waist and drew his knife. He could not avoid making some movement in doing so, and at each movement the snake raised its head to ascertain the cause of the disturbance; then the man became perfectly still until the reptile subsided again.
“After the lapse of what seemed to be many hours, the man got his knife and arm in readiness for action. Then he moved his body a little, causing the serpent to lift its head once more. As it did so, the man made a quick movement of his hand, and he declares that he never made a quicker one in all his life. The snake’s head was severed by the blow; it fell to one side and the writhing body of the creature followed it. At the same instant the man was on his feet, and he says that he danced for a few minutes in a wild paroxysm of joy, and then fell to the ground in a fainting fit, caused by the sudden reaction in his feelings. The snake that he killed was of a poisonous kind,—the tiger snake, which has already been mentioned. When stretched out to its full length, it measured very nearly five feet.
“They have scorpions and centipedes in Australia, and their bite is just as deadly as that of the same creatures elsewhere. They have a black spider about as large as a pea,—black all over except a red spot on its back,—which is found in decaying logs, and, unhappily, has a fondness for living in houses. It is aggressive in its nature, as it does not wait to be disturbed before making an attack, and it has been known to cross a room towards where a person was sitting in order to bite him. Its bite is as bad as that of the scorpion or centipede. Sometimes its victims are permanently paralyzed for the rest of their lives, or become hopeless lunatics, and, not infrequently, death results from this spider’s bite.
“One gentleman told me how he was once bitten by one of these spiders on the calf of the leg. He immediately cut out the wound and injected some ammonia close by the side of it, but in spite of these precautions he suffered intense pains in the leg for several days. The limb swelled to twice its natural size, and became as soft as putty. At the spot where the wound was a suppurating sore formed and it discharged for several months. He fully expected that amputation would be necessary, and the doctor whom he called to attend him said the chances were five to one that he would lose the leg altogether. Greatly to his and the doctor’s surprise and delight, he managed to save it, but for fully a year after the wound had healed the limb did not resume its normal size, and he suffered frequent pains like rheumatism.
“‘You will naturally conclude,’ said our friend, ‘that as we have spiders here we ought to have flies, and we have them in sufficient abundance to prevent life from becoming monotonous. They are worse in the interior than on the coast; in the latter region they are only troublesome during the autumn months, while for the rest of the year they are not at all numerous, or may be absent altogether; but in the interior they are always bad, the only difference being that they are worse at some times than at others. In parts of the interior everybody wears a veil when going about the country, and it is often necessary to do so while in the house. On some of the interior plains you can see a man before you see him, as an Irishman might put it. You see in the distance a small black cloud hovering just over the road. It is a cloud of flies around the head of some unfortunate traveler, who is approaching on horseback. They stick to him like a troubled conscience and go with him wherever he goes. If another traveler happens to be going in the opposite direction, the clouds about their heads mingle as the individuals meet, and when they separate the flies move on with them, as before.’
“Flies in the houses are very troublesome, as they are fond of loitering about the table, just like flies in America and other countries. They are a nuisance to which nobody ever gets accustomed, and in some localities they almost render the country uninhabitable. Mosquitoes abound in most parts of the country, especially along the rivers and lakes and in swampy regions, and every traveler who expects to be out at night carries a mosquito net with him.”
From the Zoo our friends continued their drive through other parks and along some of the principal streets, passing several public buildings, all of which were spacious and attractive. The town hall, post-office, government house, and other public structures of Melbourne would do honor to any city and evince the taste and good judgment of those who planned and erected them. The numerous parks and gardens are a great ornament to the city and give an abundance of breathing space for the people. Our young friends were loud in their praise of what they saw, and their comments were well received by their host. The people of Melbourne are fond of hearing their city commended, and their pride in it is certainly well justified.