Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 21 May 1845, page 3


BIRTH,

May 4th, at Maitland, Hunter River, the lady of Sampson B. Marshall, Esq., of a daughter.

On Wednesday, the 14th instant, at the Customs' Station, Broken Bay, Mrs. J. B. Howard, of a daughter.

AUSTRALIAN CLUB. —The Annual General Meeting of the Members of the Australian Club will be held at twelve o'clock this day, in ac-

cordance with Rule 15 of the Rules and Regula-

tions.

WINDSOR DISTRICT COUNCIL.—His Excellency the Governor has appointed Robert Fitzgerald, Esq., of Windsor, to be Warden of the District Council of Windsor, in the room of William Cox, Esq., resigned.

THE LEVEE.—Regulations for the Levee of of His Excellency the Governor, on Monday, the 26th May, 1845 : Gentlemen purposing to attend the General Levee, will enter the New Government House at the principal entrance, and assemble in the ball-room. Gentlemen who may receive cards for the entree, will enter by the side entrance, and pass under the

great staircase, into the ante-chamber adjoining the principal drawing-room. Public bodies to be presented to His Excellency the Governor, will enter by the principal entrance, and as-

semble in the official apartments on the left of the hall. The general levee will commence at one o'clock.—Yesterday's Government Gazette.

DISTRICT COUNCILS.—His Excellency the Governor has directed it to be notified, that letters have been received from the respective Wardens, certifying the return of the follow-ing gentlemen to serve as members of the District Councils, specified in connexion with their respective names, viz. : — Liverpool : Messrs. Samuel Deane Gordon and David Johnston. Maitland : Messrs. Andrew Lang and John Wilkinson. Paterson : Messrs. Walter Scott, senior, and Arthur Edwin Way. Illawarra : Messrs David Berry and Kenneth McKenzie. Queanbeyan : Messrs. Alured Tasker Faunce and Henry Zouch. Newcastle : Messrs. Henry Usher and Alexander Brown. Yass : Messrs. Edward Ryan and James Middleton Sydney : Messrs. William Edward Thurlow, Charles Jenkins, Henry Fisher, and Thomas Hyndes. Penrith : Messrs. John Perry and James McCarthy, junior. Par-ramatta : Messrs. George Oakes, Nathaniel Peyton, and James Byrnes. Patrick's Plains : Messrs. John Larnack, Archibald Bell, and George Bowman. Raymond Terrace and Dungog : Messrs. Archibald Windeyer and George Mitchell Harpur. Merton and Mus-wellbrook : Messrs. George Blaxland and Pierce Hegarty. Mudgee and Wellington : Messrs. George Cox, William Willard Lowe, Charles George Tempe Chauvel, Charles Bland Lowe, and John Blackstone. Braidwood and Broulee : Messrs. John Kenneth McKenzie, Hugh Wallace, and Thomas Bell. Bourke (Port Phillip) : Messrs. Joseph Hawdon, Ed-ward Eyre Williams, and Charles Hutton. Berrima : Messrs. James Jerome Higgins, Michael Doyle and George Taylor Rowe.

TlCKETS-OF-LEAVE CANCELLED.—The follow-

ing prisoners of the Crown have had their

tickets-of-leave cancelled for the reasons stated against their respective names :—John Cook, per Hooghley, for being absent from his dis-trict ; Maitland Bench. John Criswell, per Coromandel, for being absent from his district ; Maitland Bench. James Day, per Mary 4, for being absent from his district ; Maitland Bench. Thomas Digby, per Fortune 1, for being absent from his district ; Maitland Bench. David Elton, per Parkfield, for being ab-sent from his district ; Maitland Bench. Ann Pugh, per Prince George, for being absent from her district ; Maitland Bench. Robert Paine, per Royal Admiral, for being absent from his district ; Maitland Bench. Margaret O'Brien, alias Croak alias Dooley, per Minerva, for robbing her master ; Hyde Park Barracks Bench. Charlotte Tither, per Princess Royal, for being absent from her district ; Maitland Bench. Patrick Ward, per Roslyn Castle, for disorderly conduct ; Maitland Bench. Elizabeth Eager, per Planter, for disorderly conduct ; Maitland Bench. James Salmon, per King William, for stealing bags ; Windsor Bench. Neil Paton, per Calcutta, for having stolen pro-perty in his possession ; Maitland Bench. John Lomax, per Florentia, for assault ; Maitland Bench. Richard Kent, per Heroine, for aiding the escape of a prisoner ; Maitland Bench. Daniel Riordan, per Earl Grey, being unable to support himself ; Singleton Bench. Charles Dean, per K. S. Forbes, for being absent from muster and improper conduct ; Mudgee Bench. Christopher Clarke, per Sir Godfrey Webster, larceny under £5 ; Parramatta Bench. Michael Riley, alias Thomas Burke, per Fairlie, unable to support himself ; Dungog Bench. William Castello, per Henry Porcher, for breach of agree-ment ; Maitland Bench. Thomas Murray, per Westmoreland, for drunkenness ; Brisbane, Moreton Bay Bench. Ellen Mathur, per Surry, for dishonest conduct ; Parramatta Bench. James Goddard, per John Barry, for absenting himself ; Hyde Park Barrack Bench. William McLaren, per England, being suspected of horse-stealing ; Maitland Bench.

THE BUNGARABEE PURSE.—We are requested to state, that the Bungarabee Purse, to be run for at the Homebush Races, is the gift of Cap-tains Apperley and Dallas, and Mr. Parry.

BROULEE.—His Excellency the Governor has appointed Mr. John McAlister, Chief Constable

at Broulee.

AUSTRALIAN SNAKES.—On traversing the dense brushes of New South Wales, the sports-man, as he climbs over the prostrate timber, and crawls under the entangled creepers and briars, must take care that he does not put his hand on some venomous snake. These disa-greeable reptiles are particularly abundant in the north-eastern part of the territory of the colony, where the country is so brushy and swampy. Nearly all the snakes of New South Wales are poisonous, for of ten species that have been examined by naturalists, seven were ascertained to be highly venomous. The popular names of the most common varieties, are as follow :—The Diamond snake. This snake is beautifully variegated by black and yellow lozenge-shaped marks, from whence it derives its name. It has a small neck, com-pared with the size of its head ; and is rather slender in proportion to its length, which is about eight or ten feet, although it frequently attains the length of fourteen, and sometimes even sixteen feet. I have heard of instances of a greater size than this, but it was on the rather questionable authority of stockmen and sawyers ; I have never seen a Diamond snake myself, longer than fourteen feet. It feeds on kangaroo-rats, bandicoots, young pademellas, and quails, and is said to be poisonous, which I am inclined to think is not the case. The Carpet snake is so similar to the Diamond snake, that the only distinction between them, seems to be, that one has a white belly, and the other a yellow one. Whilst Mr. Montgomery Martin was in New South Wales, a native brought to him, at Parramatta, a snake be-longing to one of these varieties, which was fourteen feet in length. Mr. Martin tried various poisons on it without effect, but large doses of calomel speedily destroyed life.—The Brown snake. A very venomous species.—The Yellow snake. This variety attains a large size, and its bite is mortal —The Whip snake. This is the only arboreal or tree-snake that I am ac-quainted with in the colony. It is a handsome, agile reptile, extremely long in comparison to its size, and derives its name from its resemblance to a large whip. It is of a greenish colour, with yellow underneath.— The Ring snake. A small species, marked by alternate black and white rings.—The Death Adder. This hideous reptile is of a dusky hue, seldom more than two feet and a half long, but immensely thick in proportion to its length. At the extremity of its tail is a small pointed, hardened process, with which the sawyers and labourers fancy that it can inflict a sting like a scorpion. The Death Adder, perhaps, possesses the most intense venom of any Australian serpent, for many persons have, at various periods, died in consequence of its bite, which is most rapidly fatal. Dogs expire in a very few minutes after they are bitten. Another small kind of snake, of a brown colour, would however appear to be nearly as bad as the Death Adder, for since I have been in the colony, a man at the Williams river was bitten by a snake of this description, and died in a quarter of an hour. This snake was under a

plank which the man was removing, and so slight was the bite inflicted by its fangs, that the man did not at first know that he was bitten, and remarked to his comrade, that he had a narrow escape. The Death Adder is extremely sluggish in its habits, and rarely moves out of the way of persons approaching it ; I am therefore inclined to think, that the original popular name assigned to this reptile, must have been the Deaf Adder, instead of the Death Adder. [Lieutenant Breton mentions, that a man who was bitten by a Death Adder, died in a short period, with blood gushing from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, and the body be-came instantaneously a mass of putrefaction, so that it was with difficulty removed into a grave.]—The Black snake. This species is of extremely active habits, bold, strong, and very vindictive if assailed. The general length of this snake near Sydney, is about four or five feet, but more to the northward it attains the length of eight feet. Its colour, as its name implies, is of a leaden black, with scarlet bands

on its belly. This is one of the most common snakes, especially in the northern part of the colony, and is very venomous ; although Dr. Shaw, who first described it in his work on Zoology, did not consider it a venomous species. I have, however, known too many instances to the contrary, to have any doubt as to its being venomous ; and I see that M. Lesson, the distinguished French naturalist, who accom-panied the Coquille in her voyage to the South Seas, has especially noticed the extreme venom of this kind of snake, under the name of Naja Porphyrica. The poison of the gene-rality of Australian snakes appears to act differently from that of the rattle-snake of America, or the viper of Europe, for whereas the poison of the latter species creates immediately a marked effect on the punctured wound, causing violent swelling, intense pain, and a yellow or livid hue over the surface ; the bite of Australian snakes does not cause much pain or inflammation in the wound itself, but seems principally to affect the whole nervous system, rapidly causing the patient to fall into a comatose state. In this respect the poison resembles that of the asp of Egypt. I can speak from experience on this subject, having been myself bitten by a large snake three years ago, at the McLeay river ; a rather exaggerated account of which accident was sent at the time to the Sydney Morning Herald, by one of the country correspondents of that paper. The manner in which the accident occurred was as follows :—I was riding in the forest, about three miles from our station ; attired in very loose nankeen trowsers, and thin wallabi-skin boots. Being very thirsty, I rode hastily to a pond of water, and disengaging both my feet from the stirrups at the same time, I leapt very suddenly to the ground. Instantaneously, as I alighted on my feet, I felt a sharp prick in my instep, like that of a needle, and found that I had trodden on a very large snake, which had turned and bitten me through the wallabi-skin. Although my boot, from its extreme thinness, (being as slight as kid leather) had allowed the fangs of the snake to wound me through it, I did not, at that mo-ment, anticipate any danger, as I conceived that the tooth, passing through the boot, would be deprived of its venom. However, I gal-lopped home as fast as possible, and as some native blacks were luckily encamped at our station, I sent for them as the best doctors in such a case. On drawing off my boot, and ex-posing the punctures, one of the blacks first held the wounded foot, for a few moments, to the pit of his stomach, and then commenced sucking it. In the mean time one of the men assigned to us, who had been a surgeon in England before he was transported, was brought up by my friends to examine the wound, which he immediately laid open with a lancet, and then applied some nitric acid to it, after which the blacks continued to suck it as before. About twenty minutes from the time that I had been bitten, I began to feel ex-cessively drowsy, without experiencing any pain or uneasiness, with the exception of a slight nausea of the stomach. This drowsy feeling gradually increased, so that my friends around me had the utmost difficulty in keeping me awake, whilst the most pungent smelling salts applied to my nostrils did not in the least affect me. During the whole of this paroxysm I remained perfectly conscious, but at one time my sight was seriously affected, so that, although I had been placed in a chair under the verandah, and the meridian sun threw its rays on the garden palings opposite, every-

thing at one time, appeared to me to be en-veloped in a kind of mist. About two hours after the bite, I had quite recovered, but experienced during the remainder of the day, considerable lassitude and pain in my limbs, as though I had undergone great fatigue. I do not think that the fangs of any Australian snake could, however, penetrate through an ordinary leather boot. Indeed, in my survey of the brushy and swampy district, adjacent to the lower part of the McLeay, I have frequently inadvertently trodden upon snakes, or otherwise come into close contract with them, with perfect impunity ; and a black snake, on one occasion, seized the foot of one of my men, but could not bite through the boot. The following story respecting the rattlesnake of America, would seem to indicate that leather is, at any rate no protection from the bite of that kind of serpent. A man had been bitten

throught his boots by ...

The boots afterwards descended into the suc-cessive possession of two other persons, and killed them both ; and it was then ascertained that an envenomed fang had remained sticking in the leather. Being on the subject of snakes I may here mention a very curious sea-snake which I killed about three years ago in Tryal Bay. It had been calm for some days previous, and as I was walking by myself along the sands at low tide, I saw, coiled up on the moist sand, a few feet from the surf, a snake of a dusky colour. Surprised to see a reptile of this descrip-tion in such an unusual position, and having nothing to attack it, I ran back to the shore, from which the tide recedes a considerable dis-tance at low water, to obtain a stick, and then retracing my footsteps, I found the snake had not changed its position. A few slight blows easily despatched it. On examination, I found it was five feet in length, its head and neck of the same size : its body of a brown and black colour, whilst its tail was perfectly flat, being for the last six or eight inches, of a pale flesh or dirty rose colour, about two inches broad

and extremely thin, the flatness of the tail being lateral. There being a cedar vessel in the McLeay River at the time, I carried the snake on board, thinking that some spirits might be in the schooner in which I might preserve it, but I was unable to procure any. On showing this snake to the blacks, they seemed to recognise it, and said that it be-longed to "cobbaun water," (the ocean), and was a "murry saucy fellow," meaning that it was very venomous. I subsequently consulted several works, where any allusion is made to

sea-snakes (Hydrophis) ; especially Lesson's Voyage in the Coquille, and Peron's Voyage ; but I did not lind that the Hydrophis pelamys, and other varieties described by those natu-ralists, agreed with the species I had killed. Not being at all conversant in Zoology, I do

not know to what described species of Hydrus, the snake I killed, belonged ; I have, however, not been able to find a single instance where sea-snakes have been seen so far south of the equator, as the latitude in which I encountered

this one, which was in 30° 50' south The coasts of Coromandel, Sumatra, and New Guinea, are those where this genus of serpents is principally met with ; Dampier, however,

saw some on the north-western shores of New Holland, and Sir Joseph Banks on the eastern coast, but none farther from the equator than 20° south. That they extend farther from the equator is, however, evident, from the apparent recognition by the blacks of the species I

killed ; besides, I saw, on another occasion, a portion of the skeleton of a snake, which might certainly have appertained to a land-snake, but

which, from the locality where I found it, most probably had belonged to an Hydrophis.— Hodgkinson's Australia.