A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

8/7/26

Coverage

Campsite near the Du (Dukwai) River, Liberia

Transcription

August 7th. (One month in Liberia)

Yesterday morning I tramped through the forest for some three and a half hours alone with a Rigby (rifle) but encountered nothing but horn-bills and other birds at which I did not naturally shoot with a rifle. I did some target shooting however in the forest and am becoming more at home with the Rigby after so little shooting for many years. In the late afternoon George Shattuck’s boy noticed a big green snake under the bed in George’s tent. Bequaert and Whitman dragged it out and killed it with chloroform. It was a beautiful green snake and proved to be a species, Dendraspis viridis, one of the most poisonous of snakes. Johnston says of this snake, “The Tree cobras (Dendraspis) are far more dangerous. These snakes all over Africa are noted for their fierce disposition. They will frequently attack human beings unprovoked particularly in the breeding season. The males and females are extremely attached when they have paired and they often fly at the natives from the grass.” The Dendraspis viridis is one of the seven very poisonous snakes of Liberia. The other poisonous ones are found among the puff adders, the tree vipers and the true cobras as well as among the tree cobras. I had Theiler do a section of this snake and I round in its blood what is probably a new species of Lankesterella, a blood parasite (Hemogregarine). We will carefully study it.

Just at dusk five men with three rifles walked into camp saying they were elephant hunters and could take us to find elephants within half a day’s walk. They shifted their guns around various angles pointing at one or the other of us and I told Harold C. to look in the chambers of their guns. He made them open them and found they all contained cartridges. We made them extract them and told them our rule was for no man to bring a loaded rifle into camp. At present there is no loaded rifle allowed in camp even at night. In regions where there is much wild game about, there will be but one rifle kept loaded in camp. We continued the medical survey yesterday.

Type

Diary

Citation