NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 361 



as it was, the foot being furnished with its adductor and 

 abductor muscles. Upon these elements he founded his 

 Phc!eno20oda, a family of Ophidians, having the rudi- 

 ments of a foot visible externally, containing the genera 

 boa, pytlion, eryx, and tortrix. 



In the article ' Boa,' in the Penny Cydopcedia, where 

 the details of this curious discovery are given, I have 

 observed, that no one can read of the habits of these rep- 

 tiles in a state of nature without perceiving the advan- 

 tage which they gain, when, holding on by their tails on 

 a tree, their heads and bodies in ambush, and half float- 

 ing on some sedgy river, they surprise the thirsty animal 

 that seeks the stream. These hooks help the serpent to 

 maintain a fixed point : they become a fulcrum, which 

 gives a double power to his energies. 



We need not go to the Valley of Diamonds with 

 Sinbad to find enormous serpents. The companions of 

 other sailors have been swallowed up by those monstrous 

 reptiles, as was too clearly proved to the crew of the 

 Malay proa, who anchored for the night close to the 

 island of Celebes. One of the party went on shore to look 

 for betel-nut, and, on returning from his search, stretched 

 his weary limbs to rest on the beach, where he fel 

 asleep, as his companions believed. They were roused 

 in the middle of the night by his screams, and hurried 

 on shore to his assistance. But they came too late. A 

 monstrous snake had crushed him to death. All they 

 could do was to wreak their vengeance on his destroyer, 

 whose head they cut off, and bore it with the body of 

 theu- shipmate to theu- vessel. The marks of the teeth 

 of the serpent, which was about thirty feet in length, 

 were impressed on the dead man's right wrist, and the 

 disfigured corpse showed that it had been crushed by 

 constriction round the head, neck, breast, and thigh. 

 When the snake's jaws were extended, they admitted a 

 body the size of a man's head. 



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