April 20, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEW^S. 



373 



DEATH SNAKES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



'T'HE following account of the most poisonous species is 

 communicated to the Fieldhy a correspondent using the 

 pseudonym " Ingomayana ": — " The largest cobra {Naia 

 haie) is of a yellow or reddish-yellow colour. According 

 to Sir Andrew Smith, there are four varieties of the 

 Cape cobra. The largest I ever saw measured exactly 

 6 ft. in length. It was killed in my garden, and I 

 measured it myself with a tape line. Most snake stories 

 are so improbable as not to be deserving of serious 

 notice. It is no unusual thing, for example, to hear it 

 asserted that a cobra when irritated will chase a man on 

 horseback for miles. This of course is nonsense, for no 

 snake, if it had the inclination, has the requisite speed for 

 such a performance. It is true they glide with amazing 

 rapidity, but the speed is more, apparent than real. 

 Bushmen look upon a well-cooked snake as a delicacy, 

 every portion of which they devour, with the exception 

 of the head, which they chop off. 



" The spungh-slang, or spitting snake (a variety of the 

 Cobra capensis, in colour intermediate between straw- 

 yellow and pale cream-yellow), is also a dangerous 

 reptile, combining, as it does, the power of ejecting its 

 poison as through a squirt. Its length is about 6 ft., with 

 a large flat head, and when angered it exhibits extreme 

 ferocity. This extraordinary peculiarity of spitting 

 poison has been frequently discredited and ridiculed as 

 being purely imaginary, although the existence ot the 

 spitting snake has been familiar to naturalists for a 

 number of years. A colonist whom I knew, a man of keen 

 observation, told me that, having heard many marvellous 

 tales in connection with this peculiar power, he resolved 

 to avail himself at the first opportunity of proving their 

 correctness or otherwise. When riding along the public 

 road one day, he was challenged by one of these reptiles, 

 which raised its head several inches in a defiant manner 

 above the low bush that it occupied. The narrator at 

 once seized the opportunity, and, having a companion 

 with him, it was arranged that one should look the 

 creature full in the face, whilst the other irritated it by 

 throwing stones into the bush wherein it lay. This so 

 exasperated the creature that the moment it caught 

 sight of my informant it let fly a charge of poison, 

 evidently aiming at the eye of its human antagonist, with 

 the liquid of which the poison is said to infuse itself, 

 causing death. In this instance, however, the poison, 

 happily, did not enter the eye, owing perhaps to the 

 distance (eight or ten yards) ; it only lodged upon the 

 cheek-bone, about an inch below the eye, and being 

 immediately wiped off, no injurious results followed. 

 Next to the cobra, the puff adder {Vipera arietans), of a 

 brown colour, chequered with dark brown and white, 

 ranks as the most poisonous of South African snakes. It 

 attains a length of 4 ft, or 4 ft. 6 in. Its circumference 

 equals that of a man's arm ; it has a very broad head, 

 and the tail tapers suddenly. It is indolent in its habits, 

 and may often be heard to snore loudly at noonday. It 

 is safer to pass by the head than the tail of a puff adder, 

 because it possesses the singular power of throwing itself 

 backwards over on its tail when it wants to strike. It 

 derives its popular name from its practice of puffing out, 

 or swelling its body when irritated. Vipers are the only 

 snakes of South Africa that permit themselves generally 

 to be closel3' approached without evincing any apparent 

 alarm or concern. 



" The hornsinan, or horned snake {Cerastes lophophvys), 

 of a rusty brown, and about 18 in. in length, is also a 



formidable reptile. It is short, and very thick at the 

 head, slow in its movements, and, because of its shortness, 

 it can conveniently lie in a footpath, and creep into the 

 huts of the natives. 



" The familiar and diminutive night adder (Cyrtophis 

 scutatus), of a straw-yellow colour, variegated with liver- 

 brown, and about g in. in length), is an extremely 

 dangerous reptile, owing to its insidious habit of crawling 

 about at night, often biting travellers when sleeping in 

 the open. Should anyone take possession of a bush 

 for the purpose of sleeping under its shelter, in which a 

 night adder is concealed, the latter commences to hiss 

 furiously, thus providentially warning one of his danger, 

 when of course, the hint is taken, and the dangerous 

 locality vacated at once. Although the bite of this small 

 snake does not destroy life as speedily as that of the 

 larger sort, it is nevertheless fatal. I will conclude by 

 briefly enumerating the remaining venomous snakes of 

 which I have personal cognizance, viz. : The ring hals 

 {Naia hcemachatis), the das adder {Clotho nasicornis), the 

 berg adder {Clotho atropos), and the schaap sticker {Pasam- 

 mophylax rhombeatus)." 



A communication which we some time ago received 

 from Natal identifies the puff adder, " ibululu " of the 

 Caffirs, with Daboia Russelli of India, but gives the same 

 account of its habits. " Ingomayana " does not mention 

 the smaller puff adder, or inshlangwane, Echis carinate. 

 The night adder, enshlangu, our correspondent identifies 

 with the Bimgaris fasciatus of Fayrer. 



The assertion that serpents spit out venom demands 

 further inquiry. But that the venom of the more formid- 

 able kinds would prove fatal if applied to the eye or to 

 any mucous membrane is beyond question. 



THE UNIVERSAL DAY. 



OF all the periods of time marked by the regular 

 movements of the heavenly bodies, the most 

 practically important in connection with human affairs 

 is the solar day. This portion of time is determined by 

 the daily revolution of the earth on its axis, involving 

 the alternation of light and darkness. It is not always 

 of the same length, because of the inclined position of 

 the ecliptic and the changing motion of the earth in its 

 revolution round the sun. But the mean solar day is 

 the time in which the earth would make one revolution 

 on its axis, as compared with the sun, if it progressed 

 at a regular speed in one plane. Its difference from the 

 true solar day is so small as to escape ordinary notice, 

 unless after a certain period. By the accumulation of 

 these differences — day by day — the sun is at the beginning 

 of November i6| minutes fast, and at the middle of 

 February 14I minutes slow. During this period of 

 about 100 days fully half an-hour has been lost. It is 

 on this account that in November the mornings are 

 half-an-hour longer than the afternoons, whereas in 

 February the mornings are half-an-hour shorter than the 

 afternoons. 



The sub-division of the day into 24 hours has been 

 generally prevalent among all nations. But the particular 

 point at which the day is said to commence has varied 

 very much. The ancient Egyptians fixed the beginning 

 of the civil day at midnight ; and this arrangement 

 prevails pretty generally in European countries at the 

 present day. By these the 12 morning hours are 

 reckoned from midnight to mid-day (or noon), and the 

 1 2 evening hours from mid-day to midnight. The former 



