THE CONGO SNAKE. 185 



the fish on which it feeds, and the keeper told me that even in captivity it easily catches 

 the fish that are put into its tank. On the journey, it was mostly fed upon eels, and 

 at the present time it eats eels as well as other fish, provided they are rather small. 



It is well to mention casually in this place that the human-looking skeleton, discov- 

 ered at CEningen in 1726, and long supposed to be the fossil skeleton of a man who 

 had perished in the deluge, is nothing more than the bones of a huge Salamander, 

 closely allied to the present species. The color of the Gigantic Salamander is a very 

 dark brown, with a tinge of chocolate, and taking a lighter and more yellowish hue 

 upon the under surface of the feet. 



THE great MEXOPOME of America has been honored with a large array of names, 

 among which are TWEEG, HELLBENDER, MUD-DEVIL, and GROUND PUPPY, the first 

 being an Indian name, and the others given to the creature in allusion to its mud-lov- 

 ing habits or the ferocity of its disposition. 



MENOPOME.-Prote/iops/s Aorr/da. 



The Menopome inhabits the Ohio and Alleghany rivers, and it is a fierce and vora- 

 cious animal, so dangerous a foe to fish and other living beings that it is in some places 

 known by the name of Young Alligator. It is very ugly, and rather revolting in ap- 

 pearance, so that the fishermen stand in great awe of the fierce, active beast, and think 

 it to be venomous as well as voracious. The teeth, however, are very small in propor- 

 tion to the size of the creature. Its color is slaty gray, with dark spots, and a dark 

 streak runs through the eye. Its length is about two feet. 



THE second family of this order is represented by its typical species, the CONGO SNAKE. 



This curious creature is a native of America, and is found rather plentifully near New 

 Orleans, in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. It is fond of burrowing in mud, and 

 will often descend to a depth of three feet below the surface of the soil, acting indeed 

 more like an earthworm than a vertebrate animal. Many of these creatures have been 

 accidentally dug out while deepening or clearing ditches. The negroes are much 

 afraid of the Congo Snake, and think it to be poisonous, a belief which has its only 

 foundation in fear, generated by ignorance. 



