THE SERPENT'S STRANGENESS 155 



things that baffled his intellect. And before 

 Solomon, the old Phoenician wrote that Taautus 

 esteemed the serpent as the most inspired of all 

 the reptiles, and of a fiery nature, inasmuch as it 

 exhibits an incredible celerity, moving by its spirit 

 without either hands or feet. Thanks to modern 

 anatomists, this thing is no longer a puzzle to us ; 

 but with the mere mechanical question we are not 

 concerned in this place, but only with the sense of 

 wonder and mystery produced in the mind by the 

 apparently " causeless march of sequent rings." 



From English Coniston, where snakes are few 

 and diminutive, let us go to the pine forest of the 

 new world, where dwells the famous Pituophis 

 melanoleucus, the serpent of the pines. This is the 

 largest, most active and beautiful of the North 

 American ophidians, attaining a length of ten to 

 twelve feet, and arrayed in a " bright coat of soft 

 creamy-white, upon which are laid, much in the 

 Dolly Varden mode, shining blotches or mottlings, 

 which beginning at the neck are of an intensely 

 dark brown or chocolate colour, but which towards 

 the tail lighten into a pale chestnut." A local 

 Ruskin, the Rev. Samuel Lockwood, a lover of 

 snakes, kept some of these reptiles in his house, 

 and referring to their wonderful muscular feats, he 

 writes as follows : 



Owing to this command of the muscles the pine snake 

 is capable of performing some evolutions which are not 

 only beautiful, but so intricate and delicate as to make 

 them seem imbued with the nature we call spiritual. I 



