right hand down to the holster of my automatic pistol, the 9mm.  Luger, and slowly removed the safety lock, at the same time staring into the faces of the men.  In this manner I was less under the spell of the mesmerism of the snake, and could to some extent think and act.  I wheeled around while I still held control of my faculties, and, perceiving a slight movement of the snake’s coils, I fired point-blank at the head, letting go the entire chamber of soft-nose bullets.  Instantly the other men woke up from their trance and in their turn fired, emptying their Winchesters into the huge head, which by this time was raised to a great height above us, loudly hissing in agony.

Our wild yelling echoed through the deep forest.  The snake uncoiled itself and writhing with pain made for the water’s edge.  By this time we were relieved of the terrible suspense, but we took care to keep at a respectful distance from the struggling reptile and the powerful lashing of its tail, which would have killed a man with one blow.

After half an hour the struggles grew weaker, yet we hesitated to approach even when it seemed quiet and had its head and a portion of its body submerged in the water.  We decided to stay through the night and wait here a day, as I was very anxious to skin the snake and take the trophy home to the States as a souvenir of a night’s adventure in this far-off jungle of the Amazon.  We went up in the bushes and lit a fire, suspended our hammocks to some tree-trunks, and slept soundly not more than ten yards from the dying leviathan.

We all got up before sunrise, had our coffee in haste, and ran down to see the snake.  It was dead, its head practically shot to pieces.  We set to work, stretching the huge body out on the sand-bar, and by eight o’clock we had the entire snake flat on the ground, ready to measure and skin.

It was a most astonishing sight, that giant snake lying there full length, while around it gathered six Amazon Indians and the one solitary New Yorker, here in the woods about as far from civilisation as it is possible to get.  I proceeded to take measurements and used the span between my thumb and little finger tips as a unit, knowing that this was exactly eight inches.

Beginning at the mouth of the snake, I continued to the end and found that this unit was contained eighty-four times.  Thus 84 times 8 divided by 12 gives exactly 56 feet as the total length.  In circumference, the unit, the “palma,” was contained 8 times and a fraction, around the thickest part of the body.  From this I derived the diameter 2 feet 1 inch.

These measurements are the result of very careful work.  I went from the tail to the nose over again so as to eliminate any error, and then asked the men with me also to take careful measurements in their own manner, which only confirmed the figures given above.