102 Transactions of the 



volans). It is a small lizard, found in the jangles of India, 

 whose abdominal ribs are greatly extended and covered with 

 membrane. The animal is quite destitute of any power to 

 strike the air, so that its flight is in fact nothing but a mere 

 floating, like the fall of a parachute. These real dragons are 

 perfectly harmless creatures and can be handled with impu- 

 nity. Their food consists of insects, and they are only a few 

 inches in length. 



Two Hamburg merchants, about 1734, gave out that they 

 possessed a wonderful dragon, which, from the description 

 given of it, must have been a frightful monster. It was on 

 sale for ten thousand francs, but it seems that no one could 

 make up his mind to give such a high price. One day in 

 walked a foreigner, to whom the precious specimen was 

 shown. The foreigner was Linnseus. He was asked what 

 he thought of it ? The great naturalist carefully examined 

 the dragon, and appeared to be lost in admiration. He was 

 then asked a second time, and he replied, that it was wonder- 

 ful — very ; and a most ingenious combination of snake skins, 

 teeth of weasels, claws of birds, &c. Linnaeus was threatened 

 with a prosecution for injuring the merchants' property, and 

 it is said that he left Hamburg as soon as he could, to avoid 

 their anger. 



I shall here mention some remarkable facts in reference to 

 snakes, ancient and modern. Such universal antipathy has 

 been at all times felt towards these reptilsive creatures that 

 it is no wonder they have been imported into the structure of 

 the legendary dragon, almost invariably represented with a 

 forked tongue, huge jaws, a long scaly body, and a coiled 

 tail which could be easily enough matched in the Python or 

 Boa of our own day. Indeed, but for the huge wings and 

 sprawling legs of the monster of romance, the great serpent 

 of real life might be well set down as its modern represen- 

 tative, so like is it in structure and so similar in its voracious 

 habits. 



The largest serpent on record is that mentioned by Livy 

 and Pliny, which opposed the Roman army, under Eegulus, 

 at the river Bagrada in Africa. It devoured several of the 

 soldiers, and so hard were its scales, that they resisted darts 

 and spears ; at length it was, as it were, besieged and the 

 military engines employed against it as against a fortified 

 city. It is said to have been one hundred and twenty feet 

 in length. The skin was sent to Rome, where it was sus- 

 pended in a temple and remained for many years. 



At Batavia was taken a serpent, which had swallowed an 



