I 
284 NATURAL HISTORY 
are too cold and barren, fnakes being bred out of hot, fat mould, 
and mud, and lurking in low, rich, fhady grounds”, under long 
grafs, of which in thefe little illands there is no abundance. It is 
obferved by fome °, that on one fide of a river there are many fer- 
pents in fummer, but on the other fide not one ; and if they are 
brought over, they immediately languifh, and die in a few hours.” 
No wonder then that there are fnakes in Cornwall and none in 
Scilly, when their choice of and averfion to particular foils is fb 
capricious. There are no fnakes near Badminton in Glocefterfhire, 
and the caufe afligned (Plot’s Oxford, page 195) is, that it is an open 
country ; it wants that fhade and fhelter which they delight in. 
We have a kind of viper which we call the Long-cripple : It is 
the flow-worm or deaf-adder of authors, its bite poifbnous, but not 
near fo invenomed as that of the viper : however, I am credibly 
informed, that at Mr. Powis’s, in Oxfordshire, near Reading, a 
man about fix years fince being by this creature bitten in the arm, 
loft his life by it. Its icon is given Plate xxvm. Fig. xxxiv. This is 
of the pointed-tail kind : there is another fort common about Loo 
and in the eaftern parts of this county, obtufo at the extremity as 
if truncated. 
Of the lizard kind we have the newt or evet, which, from its 
four feet, the Cornifh call padzher pou p . It is generally found in 
crofts of furze in the fummer months : it is not venomous, nor 
with us found generally in or near water. Its icon may be feen 
Plate ibid. Fig. xxxv. 
Among the quadruped reptiles we may reckon the feal or fea- 
calf, vulgarly called in Cornwall the Soyle, in Latin the Phoca , or 
V it ulus marinus. It is common in the caves and on fhores of 
Cornwall which are leaft frequented : it is five feet in length, fome- 
times feven ; his head fomewhat like that of a calf. Its pedtoral-fins 
refemble the fore-feet of quadrupeds, with five toes connected by a 
membrane with which, when in danger, it will throw ftones very 
plentifully at thofe who purfue : the tail is horizontal, and 
fupplies the want of fins in the hinder parts. This creature is 
amphibious ; it cannot altogether live in the water, but requires 
fucceflive intervals of reft and refpiration on the land. The poor 
people on the northern coafts of this county, in times of foarcity, 
do fometimes eat the flefh, and indeed the flefh of the feal as well 
as of the porpefle in former ages was admitted among the dainties 
of the moft luxurious feafts ’, but in general the feals are killed not 
for their flefh, but for their lafting, ufeful, and fpotted fkins, and 
* Philofophical Tran factions for the years I 75 r 
and 1752, page 17. Leland’s Colledtanea, vo- 
lume the fixth. / 
the 
" Brit. Bacon, page 73. 
0 Por.topp. part 11. page 36. 
p That is, four feet. 
