28. ZOOLOGY. 
fang, which has a tube extending through it to the point, which is 
formed very much like the nib of a pen ; thus, when it strikes its 
victim, it tears or scratches the bottom of the wound, making a 
receptacle for the virus. The flesh of these snakes is eaten by 
the California Indians. At another time, I received a Crofalis 
Massasauga, that had bitten a boy of twelve years of age, who was 
picking currants in the garden. This boy was bitten in the second 
toe of the left foot. On being bitten, he called to his mother, 
who, after killing the snake with a poker, went for a doctor. In 
the meantime, intense irritation and inflammation were produced, 
the leg swelling very rapidly. pon the arrival of the medical 
man, convulsions had set in, which baffled all medical skill, the 
boy dying in an hour from the time of his being bitten. The best 
known remedy for the bite of these snakes, is to partake freely of 
alcoholic spirits, and if taken immediately after being bitten, no 
evil consequences follow. Another remedy, in vogue among the 
hunters and western men, is, (in the absence of spirits) to cut a 
portion out of the wound, and fill the place with gunpowder, which 
is at once ignited. : 
In this portion of Canada, we have no poisonous snakes or 
reptiles, of any kind. We have four species of snakes, (three 
Colubers, and one Constrictor) which are all perfectly harmless. 
C. Vernalis, grass snake, which is the most common, and C. Szr- 
talis, also a little one, rather rare, with a ring round its neck, 
usually not mere than five to seven inches in length, and asca- 
nion Constrictor, known here as the black water-snake, common 
to the marshes, and Scugog Lake. 
Snakes are ovoviriparous, producing eggs, containing living an- 
imals. From a female Co/uber, I have taken thirty-six eggs. They 
were contained in an ovaduct, and separated from each other by 
the contraction of the egg sack, around the end of each egg, and 
presented an appearance somewhat similar to a number of short 
linked sausages. The eggs, on being expelled from the ovaduct, 
presented a white appearance, and were covered with a tough 
opaque skin ; they much resembled the egg of the smalhred mud- 
turtle. On being cut open, the young snake, about two and a half 
inches in length, made its appearance, and was capable of crawl- 
ing about. 
