134 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



[March 2, 1883. 



now for nearly 6,000 years, the serpent lias had to go upon 

 his belly and to eat dust all the days of his life. Professor 

 Owen, indeed, affirms that, so far from the reptiles being 

 degraded from a higher type, their whole oi-ganisation 

 demonstrates how exquisitely their parts are adapted to 

 their necessities. "They can outclimb the monkey, out- 

 swim the fish, outleap the jerboa, and, suddenly loo.sing the 

 coils of their crouching spiral, they can spring into the air, 

 and seize the bird upon its wing ; " but perhaps the original 

 serpent expected as much, and acted accordingly, being 

 "more subtle than any beast of the field." 



Certainly no one who carefully studies the work before 

 us can question the wonderful adaptation of the structure 

 of every kind of serpent to its mode of life, and especially 

 to its powers of attack, defence, and escape from its foes. 

 The li\nng creatures on which the serpents of various orders 

 prey might reasonably object to the provision apparently 

 made for the serpent's success ; as might creatures ■which 

 like to feed on serpents object to the difficulty of catching 

 them. Yet a fair balance enough is struck. The same 

 bountiful Mother Nature which furnished the sei-pent with 

 his wonderful powers, either makes the animals which form 

 his natural prey active enough to have a fair chance of 

 escape, or provides them so superabundantly that enough 

 sur^dve to keep up and even to improve the stock. And 

 serpents get caught too, clever though they are. Nay, 

 serpents prey on each other. The Kacer, for instance, 

 makes short work of the Rattlesnake, catching that objec- 

 tionable creature deftly, holding one part of it in one coil, 

 another in another coil, and then, by an instantaneous ex- 

 tension, snapping the poor dear Crotalus in half, as a 

 seamstress snaps a thread after twisting it round a finger 

 of each hand. 



Miss Hopley combats the common errors about snakes. 

 But surely she a little exaggerates their prevalence. Do 

 most people suppose that snakes sting 1. Shakespeare may, 

 as Miss Hopley suggests, have had the Bible devoutly in 

 his mind when he talked of the adder's " sting," or, without 

 particular devotion, may have been (most probably was) 

 altogether ignorant of the fact that adders no more sting 

 than serpents "make sharp their tongues," or than "the 

 viper's tongue " is slaughterous, as the writer of the Book 

 of Job (xx., 16) supposed. But surely in these days 

 nearly everyone knows enough about snakes to reject 

 the tongue-stinging mistake, though they may not be 

 aware how utterly incorrect is the common text-book 

 description of the poison fang (even Miss Buckland, in 

 her "Winners in Life's Race," leaves this error un- 

 corrected). Nor had we known that many suppose all 

 snakes to lick their victims over and smear them with 

 saliva before eating them. Miss Hopley notes, by-the-way, 

 that ten years ago the editors of magazines refused to put 

 snakes in their pages ; but nearly half-a-century ago the 

 Penny ^fnr/az^ne had some really awful snakes in, without 

 frightening its readers. To say nothing of the impossible 

 snakes attacking Laocoon tt Sons, there was a monstrous 

 boa constrictor certainly not less than a hundred feet long, 

 another constrictor opening its mouth very widely for a 

 rabbit, a snake fascinating a bird, and so forth. A member 

 of a publishing house told Miss Hopley that his mother 

 feared he would be prevented from sleeping, when a child, 

 if he looked at snake pictures. But so far as we remember 

 none of these pictures prevented our sleeping. 



The whole book is thoroughly enjoyable and trustworthy', 

 — outside the travellers' tales, some of which only a boa 

 constrictor could absorb. The illustrations are good, and 

 many of them are new. Occasionally, the construction of 

 sentences is open to exception. It is not quite correct to 

 speak of " secondly, a number of harmless snakes, of which 



those at the Gardens are among the latter " ; but perhaps 

 the compositor was in fault here (there is a "them " for 

 "those" in KNOwr,Ei)f;E, Vol. III. p. 86, 1. 1.5 from bottom 

 of col. 2, which must have made Mr. Proctor's hair stand 

 on end). Again, to speak of two ladies as " editres-ses of 

 that _/(^(ci7(' ^)r^■nc<'/).>I among juvenile periodicals," ic, is not 

 strictly correct. Miss Hopley is probably joking when 

 she speaks of a keeper enjoying " the high honour of taking 

 snakes out of their cages to place them in royal hands " ; 

 it is an unusual privilege, no doubt, but not more so than 

 the kick imparted by Napoleon I. to an unwieldy admirer : 

 unless meant as a joke, the passage is rather out of place 

 anywhere except in the Court Circular, where it would 

 come in nicely. But these are very trifling blemishes. 



A very interesting section of the l>ook is given to the 

 sea-serpent, which should be carefully studied by those who 

 imagine that all sea-serpent stories are either monstrous 

 yarns or relate to preposterous illusions. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



From March 2 to March 16. 

 Bv F.R.A.S. 



THE student will, as heretofore, examine the sun on everj- clear 

 day for spots, faeula}, and other indications of disturbance. 

 He should also look carefully for the Zodiacal light (as recom- 

 mended on p. 105) on every cloudless evening. The major part of 

 the constellations (as enumerated on the page just referred to) con- 

 tinue visible in the night sky; but Aries is now setting in W.N.W., 

 and Hercules and Corona rising in the N.E.and E.X.E. respectively, 

 rt Cygni will be found close to the horizon, just to the W. of N., 

 and Vega nearer still ; just to the E. of it. Crater is appearing, too, 

 above the S.E. by E. horizon. Reference may be made to Map III. 

 of "The Stars in their Seasons" for a picture of the celestial vault 

 at the present season. Mercury and Venus are both indifferently 

 placed for the observer. Mars is invisible, and Jupiter is now 

 approaching the West pretty rapidly. He is still, though, the 

 most brilliant and conspicuous object in the night sky. He 

 describes a short arc from W. to E., above ? Tauri, during the 

 next fourteen days. The visible phenomena of his satellites 

 are now becoming less frequent and numerous. Satellite III. 

 will be occulted at midnight to-night ; and Satellite II. begins 

 its transit over Jupiter's disc at 11.33 p.m. on the -1th. 

 The 6th, should the sky be clear, will provide the young observer 

 with an interesting series of phenomena. At 7h. 15 m.. the shadow 

 of Satellite III. will enter on to Jupiter's face. The transit of 

 Satellite I. will begin at 8h. 30 m., followed by that of its shadow 

 at 9h. 18 m. At 10 h. 8 m. p.m., the shadow of Satellite III. will 

 pass off; as will Satelhte I. at 10 h. 46 m. Satellite II. will re- 

 appear from eclipse at 11 h. 31 m. 24 s. ; and finally, the shadow of 

 the fii'st Satellite will leave Jupiter's disc four minutes after mid- 

 night. The shadow of Satellite IV. passing on to the face of the 

 planet in the twilight, at 6 h. 33 m. p.m., on the 10th, may be seen 

 to leave it later at 7 h. 35 m. The evening and night of the IStli 

 will again supply the observer with the telescope with plenty of 

 work. Satellite III. enters on to Jupiter's face in bright twilight, 

 and may be seen to leave it at 8 h. 47 m. This should be carefully 

 watched, inasmuch as this Satellite has been seen to cross 

 Jupiter's face as a dark, instead of a bright, spot — resembling 

 its own shadow. Then II. ^vill be occulted at 8 h. 4Sro.; and 

 I. begins its transit at lOh. 24m. The shadow of Satellite III. 

 wiW come on to the planet at 11 h. 15 m. (2 hours and 28 minutes 

 after the Satellite casting it has quitted Jupiter's opposite limb !). 

 The shadow of Satellite I. will enter at 11 h. 43 m., the egress of 

 the Satellite itself happening 40 minutes after midnight. On the 

 14th, Satellite I. will be occulted at 7 h. 39 m., and reappear from 

 eclipse at 11 h. 11 m. 46 s. p.m. Lastly, on the 15th, the ingress of 

 this same Satellite will begin at 7h. 9 m., and that of its shadow at 

 8h. 28 m., the shadow of the second Satellite passingoff at 8h.50m. 

 Saturn must be looked at now, as soon as ever it is dark enough, 

 as he is leaving us for the season. He is still situated to the 

 S.E. of S Arietis. Uranus may be found over 89 Leonis. The 

 Moon does not rise until 2 h. 3Sm. to-mon-ow morning, so that, for 

 our present purpose, she may be said to be invisible until about the 

 11th, at which date she sets about 9 h. 30 m. p.m. Her age at noon on 

 that day is 23 days; whence it is obvious that it will be 33 days 

 at the same hour on the 12tli, and so on until it is 7'3 days at 



