I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...From 1877 – FEARFUL ENCOUNTER WITH A BOA CONSTRICTOR: ‘A very terrible story reaches us from Texas. A lady, the wife of a merchant named Wilkinson, was, while on the borders of a forest, attacked by a huge boa constrictor, which wound itself around her body, evidently with the intention of crushing her to death. Mr Wilkinson was aroused by his wife’s piercing shrieks, and hastened at once to the spot. Happily, he did not lose his presence of mind, and he at once proceeded to attack the hideous reptile. At such a time moments seem ages. Mr Wilkinson severed the head of the reptile from its body, besides inflicting other injuries. Mrs Wilkinson, during this double encounter became insensible, and it is anticipated that the shock to the system is of so serious a nature that a long time must necessarily elapse before she can hope to recover from the effects of the trial she has undergone.’
From 1876 – A GIRL SEIZED BY A GORILLA: We have received a short report of an incident which occurred a short time ago in Western Africa. Our correspondent gives the following account :- ‘Mr and Mrs Osgood, a Canadian merchant and his wife, have been travelling through several parts of Western Africa. Mr Osgood had betaken himself to the woods, accompanied by a guide and native servant, his object being to shoot wild fowl. His wife and daughter were left on a spot upon which the party had encamped some hours previously. While Mrs Osgood was engaged in domestic duties, her little girl Clara, who was chasing butterflies, uttered a loud scream and her mother was horrified at seeing her clasped in the arms of a monstrous gorilla who was about to bear off. The unhappy lady was perfectly frantic and luckily her husband, who was not far distant, was attracted to the spot by her cries. One barrel of his gun was loaded, he took steady aim, and the whole charge of shot entered the back and posterior of the gorilla, who dropped the child and scampered off, howling in pain.’
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