NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA* 469 
sometimes mortal, wound it inflicts, is also a native 
of Africa ; and the tendaraman, a species of spi- 
der, native of Morocco, is said by Mr Jackson to 
be so poisonous, that the person bitten survives but 
a few hours. 
The great centipede (scolopendra morsitans, 
Lin.), a singularly unpleasant looking animal, which 
is poisonous, and produces wounds more painful 
than those of the scorpion, occurs abundantly in 
Africa. 
V. — Molluscous Animals. 
The coasts and seas of Africa afford many re- 
markable and striking species of this class. The 
shells of the African coasts, and rivers and lakes, 
by their forms, magnitudes, colours, and lustres, 
shew, in an interesting manner, how the formation 
of testaceous productions is connected with, and 
dependent in some measure on, geographical and 
physical distribution. The limited distribution of 
some species of molluscous animals, when contrasted 
with the extensive distribution of others, excites 
the attention of the naturalist, and leads him to 
institute interesting comparisons between the ex- 
ternal and internal relations of tribes of animals, 
thus already so strikingly marked by nature in their 
geographical and physical distributions. But this 
is not the place for discussions on these highly cu- 
rious subjects. We shall now notice a few of the 
species of this class. 
