THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



the bronzed and glittering scales of the intruder. 

 After a period which seemed to him an age, one 

 of the workmen approached the verandah, and 

 the snake at his footsteps left its warm berth, and 

 was gliding off, when the servants at the cry of 

 the artisan rushed out and destroyed it. 



It curiously happens that in some of the crea- 

 tures whose rage is likely to be fatal to man, 

 there should be something in the physiognomy 

 which puts him on his guard. We have seen that 

 it is so in the sharks ; we have seen that it is so 

 in the crocodiles; it is so pre-eminently in the 

 venomous serpents. There is in most of these an 

 expression of malignity, which well indicates their 

 deadly character. Their flattened head, more or 

 less widened behind, so as to approach a triangu- 

 lar figure; their wide gape, and the cleft tongue 

 ever darting to and fro; and, above all, the sin- 

 ister expression of the glaring lidless eye, with its 

 linear pupil ; are sufficient to cause the observer to 

 retreat with shuddering precipitancy. Darwin, 

 speaking of a sort of viper which he found at 

 Bahia Blanca, says: "The expression of this 

 snake's face was hideous and fierce; the pupil con- 

 sisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery 

 iris; the jaws were broad at the base, and the 

 nose terminated in a triangular projection. I do 

 not think I ever saw anything more ugly, except- 

 ing, perhaps, some of the vampyre bats." 



Many of the snakes of South America are highly 

 venomous. One of these is called, from its prow- 

 ess and power, the bush-master. Frightful acci- 

 dents occur in the forests of Guiana by this terrible 

 species. Sullivan* gives us the following: his host, 

 a few days before, had sent a negro to open some 

 sluices on his estate ; but, as he did not return, the 

 * "Rambles in America," p. 406. 

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