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.

Then we proceeded to skin the snake, which was no easy task under the
fierce sun now baking our backs. Great flocks of _urubus_, or vultures,
had smelled the carcass and were circling above our heads waiting