Two hundred years ago, the old traveler Flacourt declared that the serpents were all inoffensive; recent experience confirms the fact. The largest is named Pelophilus Madagascariensis. There are others, such as the Langaha nasuta and Crista-galli (zoölogists having retained the name they bear among the natives), which are very singular, from the prolonged form of the snout, arising from the skin being lengthened out. Beautiful lizards, covered with brilliant scales of olive or fawn, spotted with black, white, and yellow, hide themselves under the stones, in the moss, or in old trees. But Madagascar is especially the land of chameleons; in the heart of the forests, they may be seen crouched on the branches, calm and immovable, rolling their large eyes. The crocodile is the only creature to be feared, and accidents from it are very rare, as the inhabitants greatly object to venturing into water.
The insects of Madagascar offer a thousand types for admiration. There are valuable kinds, furnishing wax, honey, and silk; the first two forming one of the natural riches of the island. The bee peculiar to the country has a black body, red underneath; it is very abundant in the woods, and makes its nest in decayed trunks of trees, whence the Malagaches tear the comb.
But there was an epoch when much more remarkable animals lived in Madagascar. In the marshes near the river Manoumbe, at no great depth, a great number of bones of the hippopotamus, of colossal tortoises, and of the limbs and eggs of the Œpyornis maxinms, have been found. The eggs of this king of birds are six times larger than those of the ostrich; and it was at first hoped that, in the hitherto unknown solitudes of the interior, some living specimens might be found; that hope has, however, vanished, though it is evident they once existed in great numbers in the southwest part of the island. They were of various species, and of different sizes. At the same period, the hippopotamus must have been abundant, as the bones of fifty skeletons were picked up in a few hours. This species, of very inferior dimensions to that frequenting the Nile, is entirely extinct.—Chambers's Journal.
| SKETCH OF PROFESSOR STOKES. |
THE subject of this notice, George Gabriel Stokes, was born August 13, 1819, at Skreen, in the county of Sligo, Ireland, his father being rector of the parish. At an early age he was sent to a school at Dublin, conducted by the Rev. R. H. Wall, D.D. Here he remained for about three years, when he entered a college at Bristol, as a preparation for the university. After two years spent at Bristol, young Stokes, in 1837, entered Pembroke College, University of
