153 



ities, in size, color, and number of toes, like the anterior limbs. 

 About three fourths of an inch behind the posterior limbs, is the 

 vent, of a bright orange-red color, in some specimens surrounded 

 with fringe-like projections. General shape and aspect of the 

 head, snaky ; some specimens, between the eyes and gills are 

 much broader than others ; average greatest width, just anterior 

 the gills, 1^ inch, — slight constriction in region of gills, — behind 

 the last the body is cylindrical and eel-like, about an inch in 

 diameter, gradually tapering towards the tail. The mouth is 

 provided with sharp conical teeth, and the palatine roof is studded 

 with them. Besides the motions of the gills, the animals suck in 

 water which passes out by the narrow openings at the base of 

 the gills. I liave kept several of the animals for months, giving 

 them nothing whatever to eat except what they got from the lake 

 water, which I changed every day or two. The water of Por- 

 tage Lake is very full of vegetable, and, probably, animalcular 

 impurities, on which, doubtless, the creatures fed ; but their 

 teeth indicate more substantial food than this. They have been 

 kept for months in clear spring water, so that the preservation of 

 life is probably due rather to the tenacity of the vital principle 

 in reptiles, than to any thing they find to eat in the water. The 

 animals in my possession, have been frozen under ice half an 

 inch thick, every night for three months, without any apparent 

 diminution of their activity; though the water around them was 

 not entirely frozen. 1 kept one an hour out of the water, during 

 which time it became quite sluggish, occasionally opening its 

 mouth spasmodically, as if to swallow water or air ; at the end of 

 the hour, on replacing it in the water, it soon regained its activ- 

 ity. Removing one entirely from the water, all motions of life 

 had ceased at the end of four hours. Their motions in the water 

 are very lively, and performed by the motions of the body and 

 tail ; they now and then come to the surface to take in or force 

 out a globule of air ; the last they often do under water. Their 

 feet serve them for a slow and difficult locomotion on the bottom ; 

 when they move quickly in a jar their limbs are stretched at 

 right angles, as if to steady the body ; perhaps in a larger space 

 they would be applied close to the body. 



These animals are rarely if ever seen, except during the win- 

 ter ; those I obtained were sucked up through the pumps for the 



