NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 133 



is in favour of their doing so ; but at the same time there was 

 little to support the statement beyond general opinion, which is 

 subject so much to conjecture. Although, therefore, Mr. White 

 has given a very charming account of a popular idea, accurate 

 scientific investigation since his time has not confirmed his 

 views, and people in England who consider the question of the 

 storage of water attach no importance whatever to the presence 

 of trees in promoting that object on any scale in this country. 

 With regard to the formation of dew-ponds on the chalk hills, 

 you must refer to the Eev. J. Clutterbuck, Long Wittenham, 

 Abingdon, Conservator of the Thames, who has written and 

 knows more upon that subject than any one else in this country. 



"W. M."" 



Lord Northwick, who for many years past has kept meteoro- 

 logical records at his seat near Tenbury, informs me that he has 

 ascertained by experiment that a rain guage of a given size, 

 without vegetation, catches three times as much water as a 

 similar guage planted with vegetation. The vegetation absorbs 

 the water. His Lordship argues, from the above observation, 

 that less drainage is required in pasture lands than where there 

 is no vegetation. 



VIPER SM'ALLOWING ITS YOUNG, p. 205. It is still believed by 

 many that a female viper will swallow her young when they are in 

 peril. In nearly all the cases that have come under my exami- 

 nation, the event always happened a long time ago. The witness 

 generally begins his statement thus : " When I was a little boy," 

 " Many years ago," " My grandmother told me," &c. &c. If 

 vipers swallowed their young " many years ago," why should 

 they not do so in our time ? A correspondence on this subject 

 takes place in Land and Water almost every year. I have made 

 many anatomical preparations to show that the young vipers 

 found inside the mother have never been born. I still continue 

 my public offer of a reward of 1 for a specimen of a viper 

 which has been seen to swallow its young, the young being 

 actually in the cesophayus, or in the stomach proper, when it 

 is opened by me in the presence of witnesses. The result of the 

 correspondence on the viper swallowing its young has been thus 

 put into verse by my friend, Henry Lee : 



THE VIPER (not) SWALLOWING ITS YOUNG. 



TUNE Lord Lovel. 



FRANK BUCKLAND he stood at his casting slate, 

 Smoking his usual weed, 



When there came a smart ring at the front-door bell, 

 Which John ran to answer with speed, speed, speed, 

 Which John ran to answer with speed. 



