Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/463

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fif its feizing a buffalo j which It deftroyed in the manner above defcribed, though it wits a long time about it, and was obliged to have recourfe to the method of tying it up to a tree, againft which it broke its bones feverally, with a noife that was heard to a great diftance. When the crea- ture had thus deftroyed its prey* it continued breaking of the bones, till there was not one left whole in the body, and the whole refembled a fhapelefs mafs of matter. The jaws and throat of this, and of the other ferpent kind, though fmall and narrow, are prodigioufly extenfiblc, and made fo by nature for the fwallowing thefe models. The fnake, when the prey lay in this ftate before it, licked it all over, and covered it thick with its faliva, and that fo re- gularly, that the whole carcafe looked as if daubed over with glue. This done, it opened its jaws to a monftrous extent, and fucked in the head of the prey, and continu- ing inceflantly fucking, at length drew down the whole body.

This is a work of time, and very often two or three days 2re employed in it. And when the animal is thus got down,* the fnah is fwelled and bloated up all over with it, and is no longer in a ftate of offending, or even of defending itlelf, or fo much as running away ; and the people of the places where this fpecies is common, well know this, and find it an eafy thing to deftroy them in this ftate, and are very happy when they catch one, as their flefh is a very delicate food. Ephem. Germ. Ann. 12. Obf. 7. Serpens marinus, fea ferpent, the name of a fifh of the eel kind, ufually of five or fix feet in length, and a furrowed body, continuing all the way of the fame thicknefs, till near the tail. See Tab. of Fifiies, N a 12. Its back is of a dufky yellow, and its belly a ihining blue. Its fnout is long, flender, and pointed, and the opening of its mouth extremely large. Near the end of the under jaw it has four or five large and fharp teeth, which bend back- wards, the reft of the teeth are very fmall, and ftand clofe together. At the very extremity of the upper jaw it has four very large teeth, and all the reft are fmall, and like thofe in the under one ; but the largeft teeth of all are placed in a row, in the middle of the palate. It has only one pair of fins, which are placed near the gills. The openings of the gills are at a confidcrable diftance from the head, and it is marked with dotted lines down its fides. It is common in the Mediterranean, and its flefh is very fine tailed, but full of fmall bones. Wilhtghb h Hift. Pifc. p. 108. Serpens rubefcens, the red ferpent fifh, m ichthyography, the name of a fifh, properly of the tzenia kind. It refembles the common fnake in figure, and is of a fine ftrong red in colour, and marked with oblique lines all down the fides, and long ones from the gills to the tail, one on each fide. Its mouth is but fmall, and its teeth fharp and ferrated ; and it has all over its back a number of fine capillaments, fet at diftances from one another, even to the tail, and the fame on the belly. Its tail ends in a fingle fin. Aldrovand. de Pifc. lib. 3. cap. 28. Serpent^s/wj, a name given by fome to the cornua am- monis, a beautiful foffile fhell, which refembles a ferpent coiled up.

Thefe are frequent in many parts of -the world, befide the plenty we have of them in England, and elfewhere. The accurate obferver, Mr. Harenberg, found prodigious numbers of them on the banks, and among the fand of a river in Germany. He traced this river through its feveral windings for many miles, and among a great variety of belemnitas, cornua ammonis, and cochlitx, of various kinds. He found alfo great quantities of wood, of recent petrifaction, car- tying in it at that time the plain marks of the axe, by which it had been cut from the trees then growing on the fhore. The water of this river he found, in a dry feafon, and when the fupplies of its natural fprings were not diluted with rains, to be confiderably heavier than common water ; and many experiments fhewed him that it contained ferrugineous, as well as ftony particles, in great quantity, whence the pe- trifactions in it appeared the lefs wonderful, though many of them of recent date.

Of the cornua ammonis, or ferpent-Jiones, he there obferved more than thirty different fpecies, and doubts not but there are many more yet unobferved. They lie immerfed in a bjuifh foffile ftone, of a foft texture, and fatty appearance. They lie in this in prodigious numbers, and of a great va- riety of fizes, from the larger known forts, down to fuch as could not be feen without very accurate infpeftion, or the afiiftance of a microfcope. Such as lie in the fofteft of thefe ftones are foft, like their matrix, and eafily crumble to pieces ; others are harder. In a piece of this ftone, of the bignefs of a finger, it is common to find thirty, or more of thefe foffils; and often they arc leen only in form of white fpecks, too minute to fhew their figure, till examined by the microfcope. But what is moil obfervable of the cor- nua ammonis of this place is, that they are often found growing not only to, but into one another, in fuch a man- ner, that they cannot be fuppofed ever to have been inha- bited by any living fifh, especially the fpecimen which is pierced by the other, This author is of opinion that they Suppl, Vol. II.

grow, and are formed where they are j and attempts to prove it by affirming, that they have an actual increase in fize there in a little time, and that not only if left in their beds* but if taken out, and put into a glafs of the water. This is an opinion wholly different from the received one at pre- fent in the world, and perhaps will be found erroneous on farther trials. Aft. Erudit. 1727. p. 140. Serpens terrenus, the earth ferpent-, a name given by fome of the chemical writers to nitre. It was originally given to the nitre of the antients, a fait very different from that which we call nitre, but it has fmce been applied alfo to that fait. Serpents tongues. The ifland of Malta abounds with glof- fopetns, or the petrified teeth of marks, which, from their refemblance to a tongue, arc by the vulgar fuppofed to be the tongues of ferpent s turned into ftone by fome miracle of St. Paul, when he was there. This ifland abounds not only with thefe, but with bufonitx, and vaft numbers of other remains of fea productions, Thefe things, notwith- standing their perfect refemblance of the fame bodies now found recent in the mouths of living fifhes, &V. are by fome fuppofed never to have been real parts of fifhes, but to have been formed where they now He by fome lufus of na- ture, or plaftic feeds. This, however, is an idle and ab- furd opinion ; and Aguftino Scilla, who has written at large on the foffils of this ifland, gives a very rational account of their being the real remains of animals, which, according to his fyftem, it is no way wonderful to find there. The univerfal deluge has doubtlcfs been of power to bring all the foffils we find into the places where we now fee them bu- ried, even in the midft of quarries of ftone, in the middle of inland countries ; but in regard to the ifland of Malta, which fo abounds with them at this time, he fuppofes that long fmce the time of the creation, and even without the affiftance of the general deluge, it may have been formed out of the fea, and that it appears plainly to have been at firft no other than a mafs of foft mud, with an immenfe number of fea fhells, teeth of fifhes, and other remains of fea ani- mals, mingled among it; and that thefe fubfiding as low as they could among that thickening matter, have made the ifland what we now find it, that is, a heap of earth with thefe things, in vaft quantities, buried in it, and that at different depths, but principally not far from the furface. Philof. Tranf. N° 219. p. 182.

That this collection of matter was occafioned by a flood of fome kind, is highly probable, but it is not necefisry to have recourfe to Noah's flood for it, though that might as well caufe it as any other; but it might alfo be formed by an irruption of the ocean into the Mediterranean, or by an inundation of the Tufcan fea driven by vehement winds, or any other means, that way: and when the origin of this ifland is thus allowed, it is not to be wondered at, that an immenfity of the refufe parts of animals, inhabitants of thofe waters, mould be left in the places where they had time to fubfide. And though there are found among thefe teeth, WV. in the ifland of Malta, great quantities of fhells, of fuch fpecies as are not natives of thofe feas, this is no objection to the opinion ; fmce it is well known that the winds when violent, as they probably were about the time of the forma- tion of that ifland, will bring fuch light bodies as fhells a vaft way in water.

It is a common obfervation, that the eaft, and fouth-caff. winds, bring to the coaft of Calabria great quantities of beautiful fhells, none of which are found living in the feas thereabout. The hufmlta, or toadftones of Malta, are plainly the grinder teeth of the lupus and fargus dentex, as alfo of the aurata, and feveral other fifh, which have fuch round teeth in the hinder part of their jaws. The fhells found in this ifland, and other places, are {o plainly thofe of once living animals, that the remains of the body of the fifh is plainly to be diflinguifhed in fome of them j and in others the lamella; are laid together, and coated over one an- other, in the very fame manner as in the recent fhell fifh. Philof. Tranf. N°2ig. p. 186.

It is objected, that thefe fhells are produced in the places where they lie, becaufe they are found in great cluftcrs to- gether, all of the fame kind} but this is no material objec- tion, but is eaiily folved upon the common principles : for if we fuppofe a number of diffimilar bodies, feveral of every kind, to be fufpended in the fame quantity of water, and that water be put in motion, we mall fee them all confuf- edly blended together, while the motion is violent, but they will, as that becomes more calm, feparate themfelvef, and thofe of the fame nature will, in a great meauire, get toge- ther, and fubfide in parcels feparately from the reft. Thus if ftraws, flicks, egg- fhells, pebbles, and common cockle- fhells, were to be thus fhook together, the confequence would be, that in a large tub of water they would naturally each parcel fubfide together in different parts of the bottom j and though in the neighbourhood of one another, yet the ftraws would not be mixed with the pebbles, nor the egg- fhells with the cockles, any more than it is really found, that the different fpecies of fhells are mingled in the earth.

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