282 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



brave the winter in their own domain, and to seek a refuge either 

 underground, or under stones or timber, or under the bark of 

 trees where, sheltered from the cold, they sink into a deep 

 lethargic sleep, which lasts until the first warm days of spring 

 enable them to resume -an active life. 



The slow or blind worm (Anguis fragilis), as it is falsely 

 called, its small brilliant eyes being capable of seeing very dis- 

 tinctly, burrows itself a complete winter residence, consisting of 

 a tunnel from about thirty to thirty-six inches in length, the 

 mouth of which it plugs up with grass and earth. Close to the 

 entrance lie the young, farther on the more full-grown snakes, 

 and finally in a small recess an old. male and female the 

 patriarchs of the community, which frequently consists of twenty 

 or thirty individuals, all in a deep trance partly twisted to- 

 gether, partly stretched out at full length. 



In the equatorial regions the extreme aridity of the dry season 

 is as hostile to animal life as the extreme cold of the north. 

 Thus many reptiles, unable to procure their ordinary food from 

 the drying-up of the watercourses, must necessarily have perished, 

 had not an admirable instinct prompted and their organisation 

 allowed them to bury themselves in the mud, and remain in a 

 state of torpor till released by the recurrence of rain. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, whilst riding across the parched bed 

 of a tank, was shown the recess still bearing the form and im- 

 press of a crocodile, out of which the animal had been seen to 

 emerge the day before. A story was also related to him of an 

 officer who, having pitched his tent in a similar position, was 

 disturbed during the night by feeling a movement of the earth 

 below his bed, from which on the following day a crocodile 

 emerged, making its appearance from beneath the matting. 



After the first rains have moistened the arid llanos, the 

 parched clay of the dried-up morass is sometimes seen to rise a,s 

 if upheaved by subterranean power. The Indian, fully aware 

 of the cause, takes to flight, for a gigantic water-boa or a huge 

 crocodile is slowly arising from the tomb in. which it, had volun- 

 tarily embedded itself. 



Man generally avoids the reptiles, which are equally solicitous 

 to fly from his presence; and yet they are far more useful than 

 noxious. They devour an immense quantity of mice, insects, 

 worms and snails, and in many countries their services as de- 



