are too cold and barren, fnakes being bred out of hot/fopmould,
and mud, and lurking ki low, rich, fhady grounds % under lonp
grafs, of which in thefe little iflands there is -no abundance, It is
obferved by fome °, that on onp 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 fi^v tours.?’
No wonder then that there are fnakes in Cornwall and none in
Scilly, when their choice of and averfion to particular foils is fo
capricious. There are no fnakes near Badminton in Glocefterfhire,
and the caufe affigned (Plot’s Oxford, page i9||t% that it is an open
country; it wants that fhade and fhelter which they delight in.
We have a kind o f viper which we call the Long-cripple : It is
the flow-worm or deaf-adder of authors, its bite poifonous, but not
near fo invenomed as that of the viper: however, I am credibly
informed, that at Mr. Powis’s, in Gxfordfhire, 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 xxviiP Pig. xxxiy. This is
o f the pointed-tail kind: there is another fort-common about Loo
and in the eaftem parts o f this county, obtufe at the extremity as
i f truncated.
O f the lizard kind we have the newt or evet, which, from its
four feet, the Comifh call padssher fou p. It is generally found in
crofts o f furze in the fummer montfis: it is not venomous, nor
with us found generally in or near water. Its icon may bo feen
Plate ibid. Fig. xxxv.
Among die quadruped reptiles we may reckon the feal or fea-
ealfj vulgarly called in Cornwall the Soyle, in Latin the M>ocat or
Vitulus marinus. It is common in the caves and on "ifhores of
Cornwall which are leaft frequented: it is five feet in length, feme-
times feven; his head fomewbat like that of a calf. Its pe&oral-fins
refemble the fore-feet o f quadrupeds, with five toes connected by a
membrane with which, when in danger, it will throw ftones very
plentifully at thofe who purine: the tail is horizontal, and
fupphes the want of fins in the hinder parts. This creature is
amphibious; it cannot altogether live in the water, but requires
fuceeffive intervals of reft and refpiration on the land. The poor
people on the northern coafts of this county, in times of fearcity,
do fometimes eat the flefh, and indeed the flefh of the feal as Well
as of the porpefie in former ages was admitted among the- dainties
o f the moil luxurious feafts but in general the feals are killed not
for their flefh, but for their lafting, ufefol, and fpotted fki'ns, and
? Philofophical Tranfaftions for the years 1751
and 1*752., page 17. Leland’s Collectanea, volume
the iixtn.
* Brit. Bacon, page 73.
* Pontopp. part u. page 36..
'* That is, four feet.
the
O F C O R N W A L L . A 285
the oil and fat which their bodies afford. It is fuppofed that the
fabulous relations of mermaids and mermen might firft arife from
obferving this creature at fea in an ere£t human-like pofture; for
whether it is dfelighted witfi mufic m any loud voice, as Mr, Carew
fays, (page whether Ut" is to' alleviate the toil of fwimming,
it {hews itfelf almoft wholly above water frequently, and near the
more, lb^. " Add "If» this that the great docility of this creature
(little'Abort' offtoat"of the human fpeciesU and his being fo eafily
trained, fo.bp familiar with and obedient to man', may make us
Vvith (opnti grounds conclude, "that ‘ this is the creature to which
imagination' has“ given the' fliSpe of half-fifh half-man, a fhape no
where'elfe1 to be" found. r The "cunning of this creature to free itfelf
from ifs xne^^is remarkable, if what is'related be true: The feals
are-in great pfenty ,in the Ba]^c'; ’when the Ruffes hunt them, they
luri^iftid''fofri0ral£n '"frtfee. pr four thbufand together, which the feals
perceiving/ pile tnemfelves up in ' a/heap, by that exeeffive weight
they M v c been fuiprized, and fo
efcapejheir enemy V " ’The. manati of the Indians, o tV tcca marina^
(Ray’s*X^uadtup. page 193) ■ by Artedi (G. Pifc. page 109) called
Xffefiee%u4 is" only a larger fort o f this kind from ten to fifteen
feet long, and fometimes thirty-five feet in length
Tne tome is no native of fuch northern coafts as this o f Cornwall
; .however' there were, two caught on our fhores in the year
5c 75b. That" cihibiled here, Plate xxvii. Figt'jy. was caught by
the dr over s in their mackrel-nets four leagues fouth o f Pendinas caftle,
and brought*,¥0Truro alive July 3 ,1756 . It had feven fpinous ridges
mltsffrdV/fix without nails, flat and fmooth, (not
in large fe^des, as KonddfetiU/sj.bf."a bluiflh colour without, but
within" (that is, on the under-part) ruddy, flefh-coloured, fpeckled
with dark* fpbts/ as was alfb the under-part of its neck. It was
adjudged toweigh eight hundred pounds weight. It was fix feet
mine inches from .the tip of the nofe to the end of its fhell, ten feet
four inches from the extremities of its fore-fins, extended. Its fhell
is like that of the Tejiudo Coriacea, Jive Mercurii, of Rondeletius,
page 450. " There was another turtle taken at the fame time by
the drovers off the Land’s End, which weighed fix hundred and
three Quarters after it was bled to death.
r Of which' &ft Philofophical Tranfa&ions, ib.
p#ge 113. § -
* See Leigh’s Lancafliire, page 131.
1 Phil. Tranf. for 1751— 2, page 114.
“ As the fiflicrm.cn informed me, and to me
they made the appearance as in the drawing ; but
the body was fo heavy, and the boat fo full, that
I could not get the filhermen to turn it fo as I
might ohferve it more particularly. N. B. Ron-
deletius’s icon, lib. 16, chap. 4, has but four fins.
4 D C H A P .