decision has been a real misfortune to all those whose lives are passed in a country inhabited by venomous reptiles.  We are much indebted to Doctor Fagren for the exhaustive researches he has made into the action of snake-poison and its remedy —­ the result of which the reader can find in his elaborately got-up volume, entitled “The Thanatophidia of India” —­ and on looking over the concise directions given by him for immediate use in the event of such an accident, I do not see that we could possibly have done more than we did, considering the limited material we had at our command.  Perhaps, had it been a white man, with a strong constitution, he would have pulled through; for the settled conviction that he was doomed, doubtless accelerated the death of the black boy; but the action of the poison is so rapid, that most cases terminate fatally.  Two instances I know of, in which the patient recovered.  The first was an Irish labourer, who whilst reaping took up a snake, which bit him in the finger.  He walked at once to the fence, put his hand on a post, and severed the wounded member with his sickle.  Irishman-like, he forgot to move the sound fingers out of the way, and two of them shared the fate of their injured companion.  Paddy walked into the nearest township, had his wounds dressed, and felt no inconvenience from the venom.  Under the soubriquet of “Three-fingered Tim,” this individual may frequently be met with at Sydney, and, for a glass of grog, will be delighted to recount the whole affair, with the richest of Milesian brogues.  The second case was that of a woman.  She was going from the hut to the fireplace, when she trod on a snake, which bit her just below the joint of the little toe; for, like Coleridge’s Christabel —­

“Her blue-veined feet unsandall’d were.”

She was in a terrible position; her husband, and the other man for whom she acted as hut-keeper, had both gone out with their flocks some hours previously, and there was nobody about but a poor half-witted lad, who hung about the place doing odd jobs.  She was a resolute woman, and made up her mind how to act, in far less time than it takes me to set it down on paper.  Coo-ehing for the lad, she went into the hut, and came out again with a sharp tomahawk and an axe.

“Take this,” she said, handing the latter to the boy, “and strike hard on the back of it when I tell you.”

Thus speaking, she placed her foot on a log of wood, adjusted the keen edge of the tomahawk so that when struck it would sever the toe and the portion of the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of the tomahawk steady as a rock, with firm determination gave the words —­

“Now, Jim, strike!”

It needed three blows from the back of the axe to complete the operation, for the poor lad grew frightened at the sight of the blood; but the undaunted woman encouraged him, nerved him to a fresh trial, and guided the tomahawk as coolly as if she were cutting up a piece of beef, until the shocking task was completed.  With Jim’s assistance, she then bound up the foot to arrest the bleeding, and, accompanied by him, rode ten miles into the township, and, need I say, in due course recovered.