370 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



second officer of the bark Gem, of Sag Harbor, Captain Ludlow, of that 

 ship, captured a "killer," and carried home his jaw. Captain Daniel 

 McKenzie, too, wrote him that he had seen thousands of "killers," but 

 never saw one taken. He sent on drawings to the lieutenant, sketched 

 from memory, which strikingly corresponded with that of Captain Eoyes. 

 It was customary, he said, for a shoal of " killers " to attack a right whale, 

 always plunging for the throat. Then others would snatch at his lips, 

 tongue, and other parts about the mouth, the poor fish lying paralyzed 

 with fear meanwhile, until they, fastening upon it, would sink it. Now, 

 the " killer" can stay much longer under water than a right whale long 

 enough, indeed, to drown the whale. 



A friend told liim that he once pulled up to a whale so attacked and 

 lanced it. The " killers " thrashed about in the greatest fury even 

 attacked the boats, and more than once, seizing the fish, carried it under 

 water. The "killer" attacks all kinds of whales, though most often the 

 right whale ; he scours the ocean from pole to pole, is in every sea, and all 

 old whalemen have met him. 



At a subsequent day a paper was read by Dr. Hamel, of St. Peters- 

 burg, describing the "killer," from the journal of a voyage to Russia, 

 made by John Tradescant, in 1618. The account agreed almost exactly 

 with that of Lieutenant Maury. 



The animal was said to be four or five feet long, with a stout dorsal fin, 

 and the torment of all whales. These latter animals, he remarked, never 

 floated ashore without their tongues having been eaten out and their lips 

 torn off. These "killers," said Tradescant, make good oil, but yield 110 

 whalebone. 



ON THE VENOM OF SERPENTS. 



There is much in the history and habits of the reptile tribes, however 

 repulsive they may be in appearance, that is very interesting. During a 

 sojourn of two or three months in the interior of Arkansas, which ap- 

 pears to me to be the paradise of reptiles, I paid some attention to that 

 branch of natural history called ophiology. I found four distinct varieties 

 of rattlesnakes, (crotalus,') of which the Crotalus Horridus and Crotalu.s 

 Kirtlandii are by far the most numerous. The former is the largest ser- 

 pent in North America. The family of moccason snakes (Colluber) is 

 also quite numerous, there being not less than ten varieties, most of which 

 are quite as venomous as the rattlesnake. By dissecting great numbers of 

 different species, I learned that the anatomical structure of the poisoning 

 apparatus is similar in all the different varieties of venomous serpents. It 

 consists of a strong framework of bone, with its appropriate muscles in 

 the upper part of the head, resembling, and being in fact, a pair of jaws, 

 but externally to the jaws proper, and much stronger. To these is at- 

 tached, by a ginglymoid articulation, one or more movable fangs on each 

 side, just at the verge of the mouth, capable of being erected at pleasure. 



