Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/291

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The very lengthened form, and smooth lubricated skin of these Reptiles renders them exceedingly like eels; a resmblanceresemblance [sic] which is but slightly lessened by the four limbs, as their projection is so small, as but little to modify the general contour of the body; while the toes, which are in one species three and in the other but two on each foot, are minute wart-like divisions without joints or nails. There is an aperture in the neck on each side, whence some have supposed that these animals are possessed of branchiæ at an early stage of their existence; but none have ever been discovered in any specimen. There are teeth in the jaws and in the palate: the former are arranged in a single close-set series along the border of both the upper and lower jaws; the latter are set in two rows running along the margin of the bone called the vomer, and meeting behind at an acute angle. All the teeth are conical, pointed with a slight curve backwards and inwards; their points glisten with a yellow metallic lustre. There are no ribs; the vertebræ present at each extremity a concave surface, thus resembling in structure those of fishes. The eyes are very minute.

The Southern States of North America are the regions which have afforded these singular animals, the intermediate links that unite so imperceptibly the Reptiles with the Fishes. In the stagnant waters of Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, they abound, burying