116 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



ground by its posterior edge, and becomes a fixed 

 point for renewed progression. Sir Everard 

 Home, who gives this description of the serpent's 

 motion, remarks that it is beautifully seen in 

 climbing over an angle to get upon a flat surface ; 

 and so it is. Nor will the observer find many 

 species, not even excepting the pythons and boas, 

 in which it is very well seen, where this subcu- 

 ticular multipedous mode of going through the 

 world is more visibly manifested than in the puff 

 adders.* But Sir Everard justly says, that the 

 large abdominal scuta of the boa may be considered 

 as hoofs or shoes, best fitted for this kind of pro- 

 gressive motion. 



Sir Everard further shows that there are five 

 sets of muscles which bring the ribs forward. 

 One set goes from the transverse process of each 

 vertebra to the rib immediately behind it, which 

 rib is attached to the next vertebra. The next 

 set starts from the rib a little way from the spine, 

 just where the former terminates, passes over two 

 ribs, sending a slip to each, and is inserted into 

 the third ; a slip also connects it with the next 

 succeeding muscle. Under this comes the third 

 set arising from the posterior side of each rib, and 

 passes over two ribs, sending a lateral slip to the 

 next muscle, being inserted into the . third rib 

 behind it. The fourth set passes from one rib 

 over the next. The fifth set goes from rib to rib. 



Within, the apparatus is not less beautifully 

 adjusted. On the inside of the chest a strong set 

 of muscles is attached to the anterior surface of 

 each vertebra, and passes obliquely forwards over 

 four ribs, to be inserted nearly in the middle of 

 the fifth. Then comes from each rib a strong flat 

 muscle advancing on each side before the viscera, 

 to form the abdominal muscles, and unites in a 

 middle tendon. Thus, the lower half of each rib, 

 which is beyond the origin of this muscle, and 

 only laterally connected to it by loose cellular 

 membrane, is external to the belly of the animal, 

 and is employed for the purpose of progression ; 

 while the half of each rib next the spine, as far as 

 the lungs extend, is made ancillary to respiration. 

 At the termination of each rib is a small cartilage, 

 corresponding in shape to the rib, and tapering to 

 the point. The cartilages of the opposite ribs 

 are not connected, so that when the ribs are drawn 

 outwards by the muscles, they are separated, and 

 rest their whole length on the inner surface of the 

 abdominal scutes, to which they are connected by 

 a set of short muscles, and they have also a con- 

 nexion with the cartilages of the neighboring ribs 

 by means of a set of short straight muscles. 



Endo\ ?d with this apparatus, the serpent, 

 when moving, is altered in shape, from a circular 

 or oval form to one approaching a triangular figure, 

 the surface on the ground forming the base. 



But before Sir Everard entered into this inquiry, 

 Sir Joseph Banks, with that instinctive acuteness 

 which belonged to him, had remarked, as he 

 watched a snake moving briskly along the carpet, 

 thai na itiought he saw the ribs come forward, in 



* Clotho arietans. 



succession, like the feet of a caterpillar. Thin 

 remark led Sir Everard to examine the reptile's 

 motion with more attention. He put his hand 

 under the serpent's belly, and while the snake 

 was in the act of passing over his palm, he dis- 

 tinctly felt the ends of the ribs pressing upon it, 

 in regular succession, so as to leave no doubt on 

 his mind that the ribs, forming so many pairs of 

 levers, were the instruments by which the animal 

 moved its body from place to place. 



Those who have crippled a common snake or a 

 viper with a blow of a stick have seen how easily 

 this beautiful machinery may be mutilated and 

 rendered useless. When his nurse, by way of 

 preventing her charge from straying into a copse, 

 told him that snakes were there, the young Lion 

 of the North said, " Then give me a switch, that I 

 may go in and kill them all." The larger and con- 

 stricting serpents are protected by the great mass 

 of muscle from dislocation or injury of the spine 

 by such a sudden stroke, but even they are com- 

 pelled to relax their folds by a superior force. 



As Mr. Gordon Gumming was examining the 

 spoor of the game by a South African fountain, he 

 suddenly detected an enormous old rock-snake 

 stealing in beneath a mass of rock beside him, not 

 quite so large, perhaps, as that exhibited in the 

 time of Augustus at Rome, and which Suetonius 

 tells us was fifty cubits in length ; but still a ser- 

 pent of very formidable dimensions. 



He was (says the hunter) truly an enormous 

 snake ; and having never before dealt with this 

 species of game, I did not exactly know how to set 

 about capturing him. Being very anxious to pre- 

 serve the skin entire, and not wishing to have re- 

 course to my rifle, I cut a stout and tough stick, 

 about eight feet long, and having lightened myself 

 of my shooting-belt, I commenced the attack. Seiz- 

 ing him by the tail, I tried to get him out of his 

 place of refuge ; but I hauled in vain. He only 

 drew his large folds firmer together ; I could not 

 move him. At length I got a rheim round one of 

 his folds, about the middle of his body, and Klein- 

 boy and I commenced hauling away in good earnest. 

 The snake, finding the ground too hot for him, re- 

 laxed his coils, and suddenly bringing round his 

 head to the front he sprang out at us like an arrow, 

 with his immense and hideous mouth opened to its 

 largest dimensions, and, before I could get out of 

 his way, he was clean out of his hole, and made a 

 second spring, throwing himself forward about eight 

 or ten feet, and snapping his horrid fangs within a 

 foot of my naked legs. 



Very fortunate for Mr. Gumming it was that 

 the serpent did not succeed in fastening on him ; 

 if it had done so, he would most undoubtedly have 

 been encircled in its deadly embrace. Once with- 

 in the constricting folds, Kleinboy would hardly 

 have succeeded in extricating him alive, and we 

 might never have seen one of the most stirring 

 books published of late years. Our Nimrod, 

 however, sprang out of his way, and getting hold 

 of the green oough he had cut, he returned to the 

 charge : 



The snake now glided along at top speed ; he 

 knew the ground well, and was making for a mass 



