686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nent knobs, and from the tip of each knob furrows radiate in every 

 direction. The tail is short and obtuse. The long and hooked claws 

 are attached to paws which are somewhat palmated and of moderate 

 length. The carapace is beveled to give play to the hinder limbs, and 

 the cuirass is narrow and hollowed by a deep furrow in its after part. 

 The upper part of the body is for the most part of a brick-red ; the 

 cuirass, not so deeply colored, is marked by blackish marblings. Ac- 

 cording to M. Spix, who has observed the living animal, the scales of 

 the carapace are of a maroon brown, with radiating streaks, and the 

 lower part of the head and the most of the members are of a greenish 

 yellow pricked with brown. This tortoise is a native of the Guianas, 

 and lives in stagnant waters and half -dried marshes. Except at the 

 time of laying its eggs, it hardly ever goes to the land. Immersed in 

 the mud, which it is not unlike in color, it lies in wait for the creatures 

 which are imprudent enough to swim near it. The ragged membranes, 

 floating in the water like worms, attract fish seeking for food. When 

 a suitable prey passes withip reach, the head which has been bent to 

 one side instantly darts out as if it were hurled by a spring, and the 

 victim is quickly buried in the huge throat of the reptile. 



This tortoise, described by Barrere as the raparara, has been called 

 by Schneider the Sinibrian tortoise, Bruguibre, in his " Journal d'His- 

 toire Naturel de Paris," has given it the name of matcmiata, which is 

 generally accepted by modern zoologists. The only species from which 

 the genus Chelys has been formed lives in the Guianas ; and the indi- 

 vidual, which is now to be seen in a living state in the museum at 

 Paris, was captured there by the French explorer, M, J. Crevaux. 



FEOST-PHEIS'OMENA IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA. 



SOME few people may perhaps have remarked and remembered an 

 unusual meteorological phenomenon which occurred in London 

 last Chi-istmas night. We had had several weeks of hard frost, and 

 the cold on Christmas morning was rendered more piercing than ever 

 by a bitter east wind, though indications of an approaching thaw were 

 not wanting. About the middle of the day, snow began to fall ; but 

 in tbe evening this changed to rain, which froze as it came down ; and 

 by ten o'clock not only were the pavements covered with a sheet of 

 slippery ice, but walls, lamp-posts, railings, etc., were all glazed in like 

 manner. Every object upon which the eye rested glittered and spar- 

 kled, looking as if it had received a sudden coating of glass ; while 

 fi-om every roof and ledge hung a fringe of icicles, some of them as 

 much as a foot in length. In the morning, the whole fairy-like ap- 

 pearance had vanished. 



