THE REPOSE OF NATURE. 211 



alterations in his domains. Observing a cavity rather 

 curiously hollowed in a bank that was evidently being 

 broken down for removal, I asked a man who was 

 working near at hand if he knew the cause of so odd a 

 piece of work. He told me that on the previous day 

 he was cutting down the bank, when he came upon 

 several large stones, and on removing them, he found a 

 whole mass of snakes, tightly coiled up together, and 

 closely filling the cavity in which they lay. 



The hollow was about three feet from the surface of 

 the ground, and, as far as I could make out from the 

 aspect of the spot and the debris left by the workman, 

 must have been about four or five feet from the face of 

 the bank. I could not ascertain whether any aperture 

 was visible, or any channel of communication between 

 the hole where the snakes were found and the open air. 

 The man, of course, thought they were vipers, agree- 

 ably to the invariable tendency of the rustic mind, 

 which dreads the newt and the lizard, which are totally 

 harmless, more than the viper, which really possesses a 

 terrible store of poisoned weapons, and attributes to 

 the bright and innocuous dragon-flies a sting worse 

 than that of the wasp and hornet. 



It has been already mentioned that a very great 

 proportion of the insect tribes which buzzed and 

 hummed so merrily during our summer walk have 

 died after providing for a numerous progeny. Such is 

 indeed the case ; but there are many insects which are 

 in full life, though at present in a state of partial tor- 



