A sooty black Colour, and frequents Ponds and Ditches.
What his Qualities are, I cannot tell.
{Swamp-Snakes.}
Of the Swamp-Snakes there are three sorts, which are very near akin
to the Water-Snakes, and may be rank'd amongst them.
The Belly of the first is of a Carnation or Pink Colour;
his Back a dirty brown; they are large, but have not much Venom in them,
as ever I learnt. The next is a large Snake, of a brown Dirt Colour,
and always abides in the Marshes.
The last is mottled, and very poisonous. They dwell in Swamps Sides,
and Ponds, and have prodigious wide Mouths, and (though not long)
arrive to the Thickness of the Calf of a Man's Leg.
{Red-Belly Land-Snakes.}
These frequent the Land altogether, and are so call'd,
because of their red Bellies, which incline to an Orange-Colour.
Some have been bitten with these sort of Snakes, and not hurt;
when others have suffer'd very much by them. Whether there be
two sorts of these Snakes, which we make no Difference of,
I cannot at present determine.
{Red-Back Snakes.}
I never saw but one of these, which I stept over, and did not see him;
till he that brought the Chain after me, spy'd him.
