308 
NATURAL HISTORY 
External appearance.—The animal had the general 
form and external characters of a serpent; but was re- 
markably distinguished from all others of that class known 
to your Committee, by a row of protuberances along the 
back, apparently formed by undulations of the spine. 
From the back of the head to the first of these protube- 
rances, was a distance of three inches and three fifths of 
an inch, during which the spine was straight. Between 
this place and the vent, its undulations were nearly reg- 
ular, twenty four of these protuberences, about equally 
distant from each other, occupying the space between the 
neck and the vent. From the latter to the twenty fifth 
protuberance, the spine formed a straight line, of the 
length of one inch and nine tenths; its undulations there 
commenced again, and were continued quite to the exrem- 
ity of the tail, forming sixteen more distinct protuberan- 
ces. The size of these forty protuberances was propor- 
tioned to that of the body at the places, where they were 
respectively situated. The body could be bent with 
facility upward and downward a circumstance not com- 
mon to other serpents. Those parts of the spine, which 
were straight, admitted much less motion in a vertical 
direction, than those, which were undulatory. 
ft. in. 
The length of the head was 1 T 3 ^ 
From the back of the head to the vent 2 2-| 
From the vent to the end ol the tail 
Whole length 2 1 li 
The smallest circumference of the neck, one inch and 
a half. The circumference of the body over the largest 
protuberances 2-J inches. The circumference of the 
body between the two largest protuberances 2 T 9 ^ inches. 
The size of the body diminished suddenly at the vent, 
immediately beyond which the circumference of the tail 
was one inch and three fifths. The tail was round, and 
tapered very much, terminating in a point. 
The head was rather larger than the neck, flattened; 
its anterior part pyramidal, rounded at the nose; the up- 
