THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
337 
no poison in them, all hope is gone to 
the victim. Coil after coil is rapidly 
thrown round the struggling- object, and 
then, with slow but relentless pressure, 
life is throttled out of every limb. No 
w^onder that the world has always held 
the serpent in awe, and that nations 
should have worshipped, and still wor- 
ship, this emblem of destruction and 
death. It is fate itself, swift as disaster, 
deliberate as retribution, incomprehensi- 
ble as destiny, Gods and heroes alike 
held victory over the snake as the su- 
l)reme criterion of valor. Tliey graduated 
to divinity by slaying serpents. Indra and 
Yishnu conquer snakes. Hercules and 
St. George have their hydra, Apollo his 
python. It is over the body of Ladon, 
terrible ])rogeny of a terrible parentage, j 
Typhon its father and Echidna the dam— } 
that the hero steps to gather the golden 
apples, and across the dead coils of 
Fafnir that Sigurd reaches out his hand 
to the treasurers of Brunhild on the 
glistening heath. What more fearful in 
Oriental myth than Vritna the endless 
thing that the gods overcome, or Kalinak, 
the black death, or Ahi, the throtl ler V 
Jason and Persens, Feridun and Odin 
claim triumph over the snake as their 
chiefest glories, and it would be tedious 
to recapitulate tlie multitude of myths 
through which "the" dire worm " has 
come down to our times dignified and 
made awful by the honors and fears of 
the past. The python in the Zoological 
Gardens, however, though it may stand 
as the modern reality of the old-world 
fable of a gigantic snake that challenged 
the strength of gods to overcome it, pre- 
sents to us only one side of the snake 
nature, surprising beauty and prodigious 
strength ; but it is not venomous. Proba- 
bly the more subtle and fearful apj^re- 
hensions of men originated really from 
the smaller and deadlier kinds, and were 
then by superstition, poetry, and heraldry 
extended to the larger. The little basilisk 
crowned king of vipers; "the horned 
cerastes dire," a few inches in length; 
the tiny aspic, fatal as lightning and as 
swift ; and the fabled cockatrice, that a 
man might hold in his hand, first made 
the serpent legend terrible ; their venom 
was afterward transferred, and not un- 
naturally to the larger species. It was 
the small worms, that carried in their 
minute fangs such rapid and ruthless 
death, which first struck fea.r into the 
minds of the ancients, and invested the 
snake with the mysterious and horrid at- 
tributes whereto, antiquity, from China 
to Egypt, hastened to pay lionor. Of the 
venomous snakes the Zoological Gardens 
presents many very fearsome examples, 
and painful death, such as science is as 
yet powerless to arrest, lurks within half 
the cases in tiie reptile-house. Eminent 
among the most deadly is the surucurn of 
the Brazils. Every one knows of the 
fatal daboia of India ana the cobradi- 
capello, the rattlesnake, the ophio- 
phagus, and the other more familiar rep- 
tiles with poison fangs, all of which are- 
to be seen in Regent's Pa.rk ; but the 
stranger from South America is their 
rival in the certainty and rapidity of the 
death that it inflicts. It and the python, 
therefore, may take rank as the repre- 
sentative of the two aspects of the snake^ 
idea in nature. 
Camping Out. 
^glHOSE who c^gi afford it, take 
j^^^ their summer vacation at the' 
sea-shore or at some mountain 
i^feaall resort. The object in selecting 
a locality, aside from those who are gov- 
erned by fashion, being to find a place 
with surroundings as much unlike those 
at home as possible. But those who need 
the summer visit to sea-shore and moun- 
tain side, the farmers' and mechanics' 
hard- worked wives and families, can 
rarely afford the outlay required. A 
week at any of these public resorts in- 
volves an expenditure that is beyond the 
means of the majority. After all, the 
real objects of summer vacation is, 
change — a change of scene, a relief from 
the daily routine of household duties, a, 
freedom, for the time, from care, and 
often a marked difference (sometimes for 
the worse) in the food. Besides these ob- 
jects, there may be, added the meeting" 
with new people, and seeing new ways, 
which may or may not be desirable. All 
these results, save the last, can be had 
without expense, by a week or two in 
camp. A neighborhood must be poor, 
indeed, if it does not somewhere within a 
few miles, afford a, pleasant spot for a 
camp. It may be by the side of a lake 
or a river, where fisliing can be enjoyed; 
a hill-side or a mountain top may afford 
a pleasant place. A desirable spot can 
usually be found not far- from home — in- 
deed, we know of one farmer who does 
not go beyond the boundaries of his own 
estate to find a pleasant camping ground. 
If tents are not at hand, wagon covers, 
barn sheets, tarjmulins, or whatever will 
form a shelter from the dew and rain, 
may be pressed into the service. The 
chief point is have an abundance of bed- 
ding; buffalo robes and comforters, and a 
])ienty of blankets, are usually sufflcicTit, 
though some may need ticks filled with 
straw. In starting out for camp, do not 
take too many things. One of the useful 
lessons of camp-life is, to show how little 
one can get along with. The most im- 
portant pa.rt of the outfit is, an abundant 
supply of good nature ; a disposition to 
