THE BOA-CONSTRICTOR.

IF America spreads forth to the researches of the naturalist and the scientific observer, her thousand fields of interest and novelty in the various departments of learned inquiry, she is not alone the scene or the arena, where objects of newness or of wonder are congregated. It is true, that in our boundless forests and untrodden wilds, we find native birds, whose plumage is beautiful to behold; who fan the air with wings that dazzle and charm the eye,

"like atoms of the rainbow, glittering round :"

—and there, too, a thousand tuneful throats make melody to God, in the green arcades, whose every leaf seems to thrill with a sense of their sweet presence: it is true, that many of the tribes of which entomology treats, which bourgeon in the daybeam, and

"Turn to the sun their waved coats, dropt with gold,"

abound in the green forests of the West; and that Nature has been lavish in her gifts, both of inanimate scenery and the marvels of natural life. She has given us the prairie-hawk, that

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flaps his broad wings, but moves not," as he drinks the far breeze from Mexico, or feels the rush of that stormy air

"Which on the Mexic gulf the seaman hears,

Like scream of the lone seagull in his ears,

Vexing the black profound,

With wild and incommunicable sound;"

and the immense Mastodon, hugest of animals, whose skeleton alone is a wonder; whose living tread among the dim paths of the wilderness, over autumnal leaves, and moving perhaps to the booming thunders of the cataract, as they gushed in regular cadence upon the wind, might have been likened to the first tremors of a storm. These, we have had, and still have, in America; but to the more sagacious and extraordinary works of animal nature, with which the East abounds, the citizens of this country are as yet comparative strangers, except through the media afforded by books and menageries; the latter being at best but poor expositors of the true nature and character of animals belonging to the same species as those which they contain. This point conceded, we have room to boast of our wilds and fastnesses of the far Interior. There are treasures for the naturalist, where the foot of man never trod, -in wilds, which have hitherto been to man as inaccessible as the depths of the ocean. Birds and beasts, yet to be enrolled among the records of science, are still volant and couchant in the midst of our mighty solitudes. The thought that these are yet to be discovered, adds to the other solemnities of the wilderness, and leads us to feel that in truth, "the groves were God's first temples."

"Yes! lightly, softly move!

There is a Power, a Presence in the woods;

A viewless being, that with life and love

Informs the reverential solitudes;

-The rich air knows it, and the mossy sod,

Thou, thou art here, my God!

This fane, which thou hast built!-where arch and roof,
Are of Thy living woof!

"The silence and the sound,

In the lone places, breathe alike of Thee;

The temple-twilight of the gloom profound

The dew-cup of the frail anemone

The reed, by every wandering whisper thrill'd—

All-all with Thee are fill'd!"

Aside from the inherent beauty and grandeur of American scenery, it cannot be said at the present time to possess such claims to sublimity which a connexion with danger usually affords. The Indians are melting away; and every where, except on the very confines of civilization, the tales of desperate beasts are told only by the grandmother to the urchin who sits enthroned upon her knee, and dries his childish tears to hear her legend. With few exceptions, the ferocious and the terrible among animals are not, if we may use the expression, indigenous to the American soil. The tiger, the leopard, the untameable hyena, the lordly lion, the sagacious elephant, are natives of other lands. Beautiful and full of interest are many accounts, given by travellers, respecting this last named quadruped of wisdom, as he moves beneath some royal burden, in the chase, or on the pleasure tour, over the plains or among the green jungles of India. Of the BOA-CONSTRICTOR, which is here depicted in a perilous position, we have specimens in our own clime; but they would seem to be trifles compared with those in the East.A modern traveller thus describes the scene here depicted:"A few years before our visit to Calcutta, the captain of a country ship, while passing the Sunderbunds, sent a boat into one of the creeks to obtain some fresh fruits which are cultivated by the few miserable inhabitants of this inhospitable region. Having reached the shore, the crew moored the boat under a bank, and left one of their party to take care of her. During their absence, the Lascar, who remained in charge of the boat, overcome by heat, lay down under the seats and fell asleep. Whilst he was

in this happy state of unconsciousness, an enormous boa-constrictor emerged from the jungle, reached the boat, had already coiled its huge body round the sleeper, and was in the very act of crushing him to death, when his companions fortunately returned at this auspicious moment, and attacking the monster severed a portion of its tail, which so disabled it that it no longer retained the power of doing mischief. The snake was then easily despatched, and found to measure sixty-two feet and some inches in length. The immense size of these snakes has been frequently called in question, but I know not why it should, when the fact has been authenticated by so many eye-witnesses."