. 
Miscellaneous Intelligence. a 283 
_ As serpents move chiefly on the surface of the earth, their danger 
is greater from pressure and blows from above ; all the joints are ac- 
cordingly fashioned to resist yielding, and to sustain pressure in a verti- 
cal direction ; there is no natural undulation of the body upwards and 
; ownwards, it is permitted only from side to side. So closely and com- 
pactly do the ten pairs of joints between each of the two or three hun- 
| dred vertebre fit together, that even in the relaxed and dead state the. 
body cannot be twisted, except in a series of side coils. 
‘3 Of this the reader may assure himself by a simple experiment on a 
dead and supple snake. Let him lay it straight along.a level surface ; 
seize the end of the tail, and, by a movement of rotation between the 
thumb and finger, endeavor to screw the snake into spiral coils; before 
he can produce a single. turn, the whole of the long and slender body 
will roll over as rigidly as if the attempt had been made upon a 
straight stick. - 
When we call to mind the anatomical structure of the skull, the sin- 
‘gular density and thickness of the bones of the cranium, strike us as a 
Special provision against fracture and injury to the head. When we 
contemplate the still more remarkable manner in which these bones 
are applied one-over another, the superoccipital, overlapping the ex- 
occipital, and the parietal overlapping the superoccipital, the natural 
a 
pr anda p 
vision of the dangers to which they were subject from falling bodies, 
apodal vermiform character ; just as the snake-like eel is compensated 
by analogous modifications amongst fishes, and the snake-like centipede 
amongst insects. 
~~ But what more particularly concerns us in the relation of the serpent 
_ Posture and a gliding progress on the belly, were given dy & beneti- 
‘cent Creator to the serpents of that early tertiary period of our planet’s 
tory; when, in the slow and progressive preparation of the earth, 
over, being species of 
~ the-original cave, which in extent, curiosities, and mineral productions, 
g far surpasses the old cave. . Colemar 
bite Jacob’ 
™. 2. 
to descend rapidly, and they feared they might meet with bad 
Fn 
. 
= x » * o* hy ‘ ? : uy 
and desired the party which accompanied him to explore it. 
i two or three of the party objected, as the aperture ap- — 
* 
