346 OBSERVATIONS ON 



SNAKE'S SLOUGH. 



-There the snake throws her enamelled skin. 



Shakspeare, Mids. Nights Dream. 



About the middle of this month (September) we found in a 

 field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed to 

 have been newly east. From circumstances it appeared as if 

 turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like a 

 stocking or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but scales 

 from the very eyes, are peeled off, and appear in the head of the 

 slough like a pair of spectacles. The reptile, at the time of 

 changing his coat, had entangled himself intricately in the grass 

 and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks and blades might 

 promote this curious shifting of his exuviae. 



' ' Lubrica serpens 



' ' Exuit in spinis vestem. " Lucret. 



It would be a most entertaining sight could a person be an 

 eye-witness to such a feat, and see the snake in the act of 

 changing his garment. As the convexity of the scales of the eyes 

 in the slough is now inward, that circumstance alone is a proof that 

 the skin has been turned : not to mention that now the present 

 inside is much darker than the outer. If you look through the 

 scales of the snake's eyes fromi the concave side, viz. as the reptile 

 used them, they lessen objects much. Thus it appears from 

 what has been said, that snakes crawl out of the mouth of their 

 own sloughs, and quit the tail part last, just as eels are skinned 

 by a cook-maid. While the scales of the eyes are growing loose, 

 and a new skin is forming, the creature, in appearance, must be 

 blind, and feel itself in an awkward uneasy situation. 



OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES. 



One of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut ; the 

 mulberry, the ash, especially if it bears many keys, and the 

 horse-chestnut come next. All lopped trees, while their heads 

 are yoimg, carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and 



