DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0143
AN EXTRAORDINARY SNAKE. 121
Recupero, a learned naturalist in those parts, but by the
appearance of the trees themselves, none of which had any
bark on the inside. Brydone tells us it was so ancient he
had seen it marked in an old map of Sicily, published an
hundred years before.
A remarkable hog, now in the possession of W. Fos-
ter, Walsall, which he bought about two years and a half
since for £3. 5s. and he is still in a growing state. In
length he is, from the point of the nose to the tail end, nine
feet 10 inches, in height 3 feet 11 inches, in girt 8 feet,
the cleft of his fore hoof is 5 inches and a half, and his
weight is supposed to be 60 score pounds. He has been in
feeding most of the time his present owner has had him, and
has cost him 40 guineas in meal, but it is not yet fat, and
it is supposed, when properly so, he will weigh about 1800
pounds. The owner has been offered £100 for him by a
person who intended to have carried him about as an ex-
hibition.
April, 1803.—-A most singular discovery was lately made
at Deptford. While a number of sailors and others were
employed in unloading the cargo of the Admiral Aplin, an
East Indiaman, who arrived at the above place a fortnight
ago from Madras (laden with sugar, saltpetre, and some
bale goods,) then being in the act of dragging out of the
hold some bags of sugar, they discovered through a board
in the hold of the ship a green snake of an amazing size,
whose appearance was so terrific that it gave a general
alarm, and it being well known that its bite is instantaneous
death, it was found necessary to procure weapons for its
destruction, which they completed by tying a spade to the
end of one of the oars of the boat, by which they caught
it by the neck, and confined it till they severed the head
from the body. It w’as as green as grass, 15 feet long, and
18 inches in circumference. It is supposed that this ani-
mal
Recupero, a learned naturalist in those parts, but by the
appearance of the trees themselves, none of which had any
bark on the inside. Brydone tells us it was so ancient he
had seen it marked in an old map of Sicily, published an
hundred years before.
A remarkable hog, now in the possession of W. Fos-
ter, Walsall, which he bought about two years and a half
since for £3. 5s. and he is still in a growing state. In
length he is, from the point of the nose to the tail end, nine
feet 10 inches, in height 3 feet 11 inches, in girt 8 feet,
the cleft of his fore hoof is 5 inches and a half, and his
weight is supposed to be 60 score pounds. He has been in
feeding most of the time his present owner has had him, and
has cost him 40 guineas in meal, but it is not yet fat, and
it is supposed, when properly so, he will weigh about 1800
pounds. The owner has been offered £100 for him by a
person who intended to have carried him about as an ex-
hibition.
April, 1803.—-A most singular discovery was lately made
at Deptford. While a number of sailors and others were
employed in unloading the cargo of the Admiral Aplin, an
East Indiaman, who arrived at the above place a fortnight
ago from Madras (laden with sugar, saltpetre, and some
bale goods,) then being in the act of dragging out of the
hold some bags of sugar, they discovered through a board
in the hold of the ship a green snake of an amazing size,
whose appearance was so terrific that it gave a general
alarm, and it being well known that its bite is instantaneous
death, it was found necessary to procure weapons for its
destruction, which they completed by tying a spade to the
end of one of the oars of the boat, by which they caught
it by the neck, and confined it till they severed the head
from the body. It w’as as green as grass, 15 feet long, and
18 inches in circumference. It is supposed that this ani-
mal