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rustling noise, at some paces' distance. I looked all around without distinguishing any thing, until I climbed up one of my great hempstalks; when to my astonishment, I beheld two snakes of considerable length, the one pursuing the other, with great celerity through a hemp stubble field. The aggressor was of the black kind, six feet long; the fugitive was a Water Snake, nearly of equal dimensions. They soon met, and, in the fury of their first encounter, appeared in an instant firmly twisted together; and whilst their united tails beat the ground, they mutually tried with open jaws, to lacerate each other. What a fell aspect did they present! Their heads were compressed to a very small size; their eyes flashed fire; and after this conflict had lasted about five minutes, the second found means to disengage itself from the first, and hurried towards the ditch. Its antagonist instantly assumed a new posture, and half creeping, half erect, with a majestic mien, overtook and attacked the other again, which placed itself in a similar attitude, and prepared to resist. The scene was uncommon, for thus opposed, they fought with their jaws, biting each other with the utmost rage; but, notwithstanding this appearance of mutual courage and fury, the water-snake still seemed desirous of retreating towards the ditch, its natural element. This was no sooner perceived by the keen-eyed black one, than twisting its tail twice

round a stalk of hemp, and seizing its adversary by the throat, not by means of its jaws, but by twisting its own neek twice round that of the water snake, it pulled him back from the ditch. To prevent a defeat, the latter took hold likewise of a stalk on the bank, and by the acqui sition of that point of resistance, became a match for his fierce antagonist. Strange was this to behold: two great snakes strongly adhering to the ground, mutually fastened together by means of the writhings which lashed them to each other, and stretched at their full length: they pulled, but pulled in vain; and in the moments of greatest exertion, that part of their bodies which was entwined, seemed extremely small, while the rest appeared inflated, and now and then convulsed with strong undulations, rapidly fol lowing each other. Their eyes appeared on fire, and ready to start out of their heads. At one time, the conflict seemed decided; the watersnake bent itself into great folds, and by that operation rendered the other more than usually outstretched; the next minute the new struggles of the black one gained an unexpected superiority, it acquired two great folds likewise, which necessarily extended the body of its adversary, in proportion as it had contracted its own. These efforts were alternate, victory seemed doubtful, inclining sometimes to one side, sometimes to the other; until at last, the stalk to which the black snake was fastengd,

suddenly gave way, and, in consequence of this accident, they both plunged into the ditch. The water did not extinguish their vindictive rage, for by their agitations, I could still trace, though I could not distinguish, their attacks. They soon re-appeared on the surface, twisted together, as in their first onset: but the black snake seemed to retain its wonted superiority; for its head was exactly fixed above that of the other, which it incessantly pressed down under the water, until it was stifled, and sunk. The victor no sooner perceived its enemy incapable of further resistance, than abandoning it to the current, it returned to the shore, and disappeared."

THE WHIP SNAKE.

THIS animal which is a native of the cast, is about five feet long, yet not much thicker than the thong of a coachman's whip It is exceedingly venomous, and its bite is said to kill in about six hours. One of the missionaries, happening to enter into an Indian pagoda, saw what he took to be a whip-cord lying on the floor, and stooped to take it up; but, upon handling it, what was his surprize to find that it was animated, and no other than the whip-snake, of which he had heard such formidable accounts: Providentially however, he grasped the animal by the head, so that it had no power to bite

him, and only twisted its fold up his arm. In this manner he held it, till it was killed by those who came to his assistance.

The Corican, says Mr. Forbes in his Oriental Memoirs, abounds with this kind of serpent.This animal conceals itself among the branches of trees, from whence it darts rapidly on the cattle grazing below, generally aiming at the eye. One of them, near the hot wells, flew at a bull; and wounding him in the eye, threw him into a violent agony; he tore up the ground in a furious manner, and foaming at the mouth, died in about half an hour.

THE SEA SERPENT.

Tue existence of this Marine prodigy on the coast of North America, has been placed beyond a doubt, by the multiplied evidences procured by the Linnæan Society of New England, established at Boston, Their enquiries were founded on the rumours currently spread, on various authorities, that in the month of August, 1817, an animal of a very singular appearance had been repeatedly seen in the harbour of Gloucester, Cape Ann, about thirty miles from Boston. It was said to resemble a serpent in its general form and motions, to be of inmense size, and to move with wonderful rapidity; to appear on the surface of the water in calm and

bright weather only; and to seem jointed, or like a number of buoys or casks following each other in a line. The following is a brief abstract of the evidences taken upon oath, in support of these rumours. The depositions were made before Lonson Nash, Esq. a magistrate of Gloucester, by whose own account of the animal, of which he had a distinct view, it may not be improper to preface the various evidences adduced.

Mr. Nash saw the serpent at the distance of about two hundred and fifty yards. It was so long, that the two extremes were not visible at one view, with a telescope. He therefore judged it to be seventy, or, perhaps, a hundred feet in longth. He perceived eight distinct portions, or bunches, apparently caused by the vertical motion of the animal, which he conjectures to be straight. In this vertical motion all the testimonies agree, as well as in the apparent bunches. The track made in the water wes visible for half a mile, and the progress of the animal, when on its surface, a mile in four mi nutes; but when immersed, by the motion of the water, which could be often traced, he appeared to move a mile in two minutes, or in three minutes at the most. His body was of the size of a half barrel, apparently rough, and of a very dark colour, in which latter particular, all the accounts coincide,

A ship-master, and two of his men, being in a boat, approached this monstrous animal to

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