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MISCELLANEOUS WONDERS OF NATURE.

THE GREAT SERPENT, CALLED THE BOA CONSTRICTOR.

Ye too, in other climes who harmless rove
In gilded scales, the guardians of the grove,
In horrid Afric's pestilential air

Acquire new natures from the burning glare;
Ride through the blaze of noon on sable wing,
Quick on th' affrighted herds with fury spring,
And gathering all your folds in wreathings dire,
Bid the huge ox beneath your crush expire:
Th' enormous elephant by force can slay,
And need no poison to secure your prey.

AMONG serpents, the genus BoA is distinguished by its vast, and, indeed, almost unlimited size, as well as by its prodigious strength, which enables it to destroy cattle, deer, &c. by twisting around them in such a manner as to crush them to death by continual pressure. It also claims a superiority over other serpents by the beauty of its colours, and the peculiar disposition of its variegations. The entire ground colour of this animal, in the younger specimens, is a yellowish grey, and sometimes a bright yellow, on which is disposed, along the whole length of the back, a series of large, chain-like, reddish brown, and sometimes perfectly red variegations, leaving large open spaces of the ground colour at regular intervals. The largest, or principal marks, composing the above chain-like pattern, are of a squarish form, accompanied on their exterior sides by large triangular spots, with their points directed downward. Between these larger marks are disposed many smaller ones of uncertain forms, and more or less numerous in different parts. The ground colour itself is also scattered over by many small specks of the same colour with the variegations. The exterior edges of all the larger spots and markings are commonly blackish, or of a much deeper cast than the middle part, and the ground colour immediately accompanying the outward edges of the spots is, on the contrary, lighter than on the other parts, or even whitish, thus constituting a general richness of pattern, of which nothing but an actual view of a highly-coloured specimen

of the animal itself can convey a complete idea. In larger specimens, the yellow tinge is often lost in an uniform grey cast, and the red tinge of the variegations sinks into a deep chesnut: in some instances the general regularity of the pattern, as above described, is disturbed by a kind of confluent appearance. The head is invariably marked above by a large longitudinal dark band, and by a narrower lateral band passing across the eyes towards the neck.

It was, in all probability, an enormous specimen of this very serpent which once threw a whole Roman army into dismay. The fact is recorded by Valerius Maximus, who quotes it from one of the lost books of Livy, where it was detailed at a greater length. He relates that near the river Bagrada, in Africa, a snake was seen of so enormous a magnitude as to prevent the army of Attilius Regulus from the use of the river; and which, after having snatched up several soldiers with its enormous mouth, and killed several others by striking and squeezing them with the spires of its tail, was at length destroyed by assailing it with all the force of military engines and showers of stones, after it had withstood the attack of their spears and darts. It was regarded by the whole army as a more formidable enemy than even Carthage itself. The whole adjacent region was tainted with the pestilential effluvia proceeding from its remains, as were the waters with its blood, so as to oblige the Roman army to shift its station. The skin of this monster, measuring in length one hundred and twenty feet, was sent to Rome as a trophy, and was there suspended in a temple, where it remained till the time of the Numidjan war.

In the narrative of Mr. Mc Leod, surgeon of the Alceste frigate, which conveyed the late embassy to China, and was wrecked in the Straits of Gaspar, is an account of a BOA CONSTRICTOR having been embarked on board the Cæsar, the vessel which brought home the officers and crew of the shipwrecked frigate. The details are of great interest; but the mode in which this prodigy of nature was, during the passage, supplied with its food, causes humanity to shudder. Well may Sir Richard Phillips have remarked, in the supplementary number of the Monthly Magazine, [No. 307. p. 646.] that the parties guilty of the atrocious.

act about to be described, ought themselves to have been made to exchange places with the helpless goat!

The BOA CONSTRICTOR was a native of Borneo, and had been sent to Batavia, where he was embarked. "He was brought on board shut up in a wooden crib or cage, the bars of which were sufficiently close to prevent his escape; and it had a sliding door, for the purpose of admitting the artieles on which he was to subsist; the dimensions of the crib were about four feet high, and about five feet square, a space sufficiently large to allow him to coil himself round with ease. The live stock for his use during the passage, consisting of six goats of the ordinary size, were sent with him on board, five being considered as a fair allowance for as many months. At an early period of the voyage we had an exhibition of his talent in the way of eating, which was publicly performed on the quarterdeck, upon which he was brought. The sliding-door being opened, one of the goats was thrust in, and the door of the cage shut. The poor goat, as if instantly aware of all the horrors of its perilous situation, immediately began to utter the most piercing and distressing cries, butting instinctively, at the same time, with its head towards the serpent, in self-defence.

"The snake, which at first appeared scarcely to notice the poor animal, soon began to stir a little, and, turning his head in the direction of the goat, it at length fixed a deadly and malignant eye on the trembling victim, whose agony and terror seemed to increase; for previous to the snake seizing its prey, it shook in every limb, but still continuing its unavailing show of attack, by butting at the serpent, who now became sufficiently animated to prepare for the banquet. The first operation was that of darting out his forked tongue, and at the same time rearing a little his head; then suddenly seizing the goat by the fore-leg with his mouth, and throwing him down, he was encircled in an instant in its horrid folds. So quick, indeed, and so instantaneous was the act, that it was impossible for the eye to follow the rapid convolution of his elongated body.. It was not a regular screw-like turn that was formed, but resembling rather a knot, one part of the body overlaying the other, as if to add weight to the muscular pressure, the more effectually to crush his object. During this time he

continued to grasp with his mouth, though it appeared an unnecessary precaution, that part of the animal which he had first seized. The poor goat, in the meantime, continued its feeble and half-stifled cries for some minutes, but they soon became more and more faint, and at last it expired. The snake, however, retained it for a considerable time in its grasp after it was apparently motionless. He then began slowly and cautiously to unfold himself till the goat fell dead from his monstrous embrace, when he began to prepare himself for the feast. Placing his mouth in front of the head of the dead animal, he commenced by lubricating with his saliva that part of the goat; and then taking its muzzle into his mouth, which had, and indeed always has, the appearance of a raw lacerated wound, he sucked it in, as far as the horns would allow. These protuberances opposed some little difficulty, not so much from their extent as from their points; however, they also, in a very short time, disappeared; that is to say externally; but their progress was still to be traced very distinctly on the outside, threatening every moment to protrude through the skin. The victim had now descended as far as the shoulders; and it was an astonishing sight to observe the extraordinary action of the snake's muscles when stretched to such an unnatural extent—an extent which must have utterly destroyed all muscular power in any animal that was not, like itself, endowed with very peculiar faculties of expansion and action at the same time. When his head and neck had no other appearance than that of a serpent's skin, stuffed almost to bursting, still the workings of the muscles were evident; and his power of suction, as it is erroneously called, unabated; it was, in fact, the effect of a contractile muscular power, assisted by two rows of strong hooked teeth. With all this he must be so formed as to be able to suspend, for a time, his respiration, for it is impossible to conceive that the process of breathing could be carried on while the mouth and throat were so completely stuffed and expanded by the body of the goat, and the lungs themselves (admitting the trachea to be ever so hard) compressed, as they must have been, by its passage downwards.

"The whole operation of completely gorging the goat, occupied about two hours and twenty minutes: at the end of which time the tumefaction was confined to the middle

part of the body, or stomach, the superior parts, which had been so much distended, having resumed their natural dimensions. He now coiled himself up again, and laid quietly in his usual torpid state for about three weeks or a month, when his last meal appearing to be completely digested and dissolved, he was presented with another goat, which he devoured with equal facility. It would appear that almost all he swallows is converted into nutrition, for a small quantity of calcareous matter (and that, perhaps, not a tenth part of the bones of the animal) with occasion ally some of the hairs, seemed to compose his general fæces; and this may account for these animals being able to remain so long without a supply of food. He had more difficulty in killing a fowl than a larger animal, the former being too small for his grasp.

"As we approached the Cape of Good Hope, this animal began to droop, as was then supposed, from the increasing coldness of the weather, (which may probably have had its influence,) and he refused to kill some fowls which were offered to him. Between the Cape and St. Helena he was found dead in his cage; and, on dissection, the coats of his stomach were discovered to be excoriated and perforated by worms. Nothing remained of the goat except one of the horns, every other part being dissolved."

THE SEA SERPENT.

THE existence of this Marine prodigy on the coast of North America, has been placed beyond a doubt by the multiplied evidences procured by the Linnean Society of New England established at Boston. The enquiries were founded on the rumours currently spread, on various authorities, that in the month of August, 1817, an animal of very singu lar appearance had been repeatedly seen in the harbour of Gloucester, Cape Aun, about thirty miles from Boston. It was said to resemble a serpent in its general form and mo tions, to be of immense size, and to move with wonderful rapidity; to appear on the surface of the water in calm and bright weather only; and to seem jointed, or like a number of buoys or casks following each other in a line. The following is a brief abstract of the evidences taken on oath in support of these rumours. The depositions were made before Lonson Nash, Esq. a magistrate of Gloucester, by whose

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