344 
TEMPERATURE OF THE SEA. 
Seven single plates. 
Five pair of small plates. 
Three single plates. 
The tip of the tail is covered with very small scales closely imbricated. 
The anal orifice is guarded on the sides by very small scales intimately clasp- 
ing each other. Towards the belly the central broad plate somewhat over- 
lays the orifice ; toward the tail a broad scale on each side closes it by the 
meeting of their internal edges, which are free. The angle formed between 
their convex ends is filled up by a small oval plate. 
Claws — strong curved; one on each side the anus. These claws spring 
from prominent cartilaginous cushions. 
Observation . — I have examined the claws of some other species of snake 
exhibiting about town, from the East Indies, and have always found them 
straight. The drawing which is given in the text having been taken from 
the skin of the animal after it had been for some time preserved in spirit, 
the membranous parts appear relaxed, and the anal orifice open. 
Pages 67, 68 . — Temperature of the Sea. 
The general conclusion to be inferred from the experiments stated in the 
text is the same which is deducible from the greater number of those made 
by other observers. And although these experiments have not been so 
numerous as the importance of the subject merits, they have been made by 
Forster and Irving, in the highest southern and northern latitudes, reached in 
the voyages of Cook and of Phipps ; and by Peron and others, at the equator 
and intermediate seas. These experiments, as far as they regard the tem- 
perate and torrid zones, have uniformly shown that the “ temperature of the 
sea diminishes in proportion to its depth.” But this deduction does not 
invariably follow, from the experiments of Forster and Irving in high lati- 
tudes; especially when the temperature of the water at the surface closely 
approaches the freezing point. 
The two experiments of Forster to which I allude* are the following : On 
the 15th of December, 1772, being in latitude 55° south, this observer sent 
down an apparatus, for ascertaining the temperature of the sea, to the depth 
of 100 fathoms, Fahrenheit’s thermometer in the air standing at dOf 0 , the 
* Forster’s Observations. 
