in zoology. See Anguis and Serpens.

Method of Preserving Snakes. When the snake is killed, it must first be washed clean, and freed from all filth and nastiness; then it is to be put into a glass of a proper size, the tail first, and afterwards the rest of the body, winding it in spiral ascending circles, and disposing the back, which is always the most beautiful, outwardly. A thread, connected with a small glass bead, is, by the help of a needle, to be passed through the upper jaw from within outwardly, and then through the cork of the bottle, where it must be fastened; by this means the head will be drawn into a natural posture, and the mouth kept open by the bead, whereby the teeth, &c., will be discovered: the glass is then to be filled with rum, and the cork sealed down to prevent its exhalation. A label, containing the name and properties of the snake, is then to be affixed to the wax over the cork; and in this manner the snake will make a beautiful appearance, and may be preserved a great number of years; nor will the spirits impair or change the lustre of its colours. Snake-Stones, Ammonites, in natural history, the name of a large genus of fossil shells, very few if any of which are yet known in their recent state, or living either on our own or any other shores; so that it seems wonderful whence so vast a number and variety of them should be brought into our subterranean regions. They seem indeed dispersed in great plenty throughout the world, but nowhere are found in greater numbers, beauty, and variety, than in our island.

Mr Harenberg found prodigious numbers of them on the banks of a river in Germany. He traced this river through its several windings for many miles, and among a great variety of belemnite, cornua ammonis, and cochlite, of various kinds; he found also great quantities of wood of recent petrifaction, which still preserved plain marks, of the axe by which it had been cut from the trees then growing on the shore. The water of this river he found in dry seasons, when its natural springs were not diluted with rains, to be considerably heavier than common water; and many experiments showed him that it contained ferruginous, as well as stony particles, in great quantity, whence the petrifications in it appeared the less wonderful, though many of them of recent date.

Of the cornua ammonis, or serpent-stones, he there observed more than 30 different species. They lie immersed in a bluish fossil stone, of a soft texture and fatty appearance, in prodigious numbers, and of a great variety of sizes, from the larger known down to such as could not be seen without very accurate inspection or the assistance of a microscope. Such as lie in the softest of these stones are soft like their matrix, and easily crumble to pieces; others are harder. In a piece of this stone, of the bigness of a finger, it is common to find 30 or more of these fossils; and often they are seen only in form of white specks, so minute that their figure cannot be distinguished till examined by the microscope.

They all consist of several volutes, which are different in number in the different species, and their size also are extremely various; some very deep with very high ridges between them, others very slight; some straight, others crooked; others undulated, and some terminating in dots, tubercles, or cavities, towards the back, and others having tubercles in two or three places. They are all composed of a great number of chambers or cells, in the manner of the nautilus Gracilis, each having a communication with the others, by means of a pipe or siphunculus. There is a small white shell fish of Barbadoes, which seems truly a recent animal of this genus; and in the East Indies there is another also, small and greyish; but the large and beautifully marked ones are found only fossil.

They are composed of various fossil bodies, often of quarry stone, sometimes of the matter of the common pyrites, and of a great variety of other substances; and though they appear usually mere stones, yet in some the pearly part of the original shell is preserved in all its beauty. Sometimes also, while the outer substance is of the matter of the pyrites, or other coarse, stony, or mineral matter, the inner cavity is filled with a pure white spar of the common plated texture. This gives a great beauty to the specimen. The cornua ammonis, or snake-stones, are found in many parts of England, particularly in Yorkshire, where they are very plentiful in the alum rocks of several sizes.

Vol. XVII. Part II.

Snake-Root, in botany. See Polygala. Snake-Weed, in botany. See Polygonum. Snapdragon, in botany. See Antirrhinum.