314 CLASS REPTILIA. 



nishes, of itself alone, according to the observation of M. de 

 Humboldt, one hundred and fifteen species, out of three hun- 

 dred and twenty which have been described in the ophidian 

 order. In the provinces which it contains, the earth, pecu- 

 liarly lavish in the support of poisonous weeds and hurtful 

 animals, has peopled with impure and dangerous reptiles the 

 inundated morasses, and yet untrodden forests of these mighty 

 regions. They swarm in Surinam, in French Guiana, in 

 Peru, in Brazil, in the neighbourhood of the Lower Orinoco, 

 in Nicaragua, Panama, and Cassiquiare. Twice a year 

 they lay an immense number of eggs, and are so excessively 

 abundant, that when the natives set fire to the brush-wood, 

 &c. with which the country is covered, whole armies, as it 

 were, of formidable serpents, sally forth in all directions in 

 crowded ranks, to the number of thirty or forty thousand at 

 a time, putting all to flight before them. But in colder 

 climates a few individuals only are found scattered over a 

 large extent of territory. They begin to be rare enough in 

 Germany and Russia, still more so towards Siberia, and 

 totally disappear as we approach the polar regions. Neither 

 are they ever found upon high mountains, beyond an eleva- 

 tion of five or six thousand feet, as has been observed on the 

 ridge of the Cordilleras, on the platforms of Santa-Fe de 

 Bogota, on the Andes, at Antisana, and Pichincha. 



But among all the known serpents, there is scarcely one- 

 sixth, or one-fifth part of them, that may be considered of a 

 really dangerous character. Among the forty-three species 

 of the East Indies, described by Russel, seven alone are to 

 be feared ; and in the enumeration of the ophidians which 

 were known in his time, by Daudin, there were eighty veno- 

 mous species, and two hundred and thirty-three not venomous. 

 In America, one race alone in five,, and one in four in Eu- 

 rope, are redoubtable for their poison. The others are inno- 

 cent animals, which creep upon the surface of the earth. 



