rather skeletons, of fifty individuals of the family of elk, lay scattered about on the surface, which the Indians had left here. We had an abundance of deer, and they are numerous still in the newer parts of the state. They are the common red deer.

Our serpents are rattlesnakes, of two species, one is a large one, the male black and the female yellow. These inhabited all this state, especially the hilly regions, and they are there now. The small spotted rattle snake, dwelt in the northwestern corner of the state, in the prairies there. It is scarcely twenty inches in length and is quite venomous. Captain James Riley encountered not a few of them, while traveling in that region. Wherever hogs run in the woods, they destroy the rattle snake. At an early period of our settlement, the large rattlesnake was found along the Scioto, in considerable numbers, but the newly settled inhabitants, ascertaining that these serpents burrowed in a large stone mound a few miles northeastwardly from Circleville, after the serpents had gone into their winter quarters, fenced in the mound, and, as the serpents came out of it in the spring of the next year, they killed them, so that it is a rare thing now, to find one in this region. Five miles above Columbus, on the main branch of the Scioto river, there was, formerly, a den of serpents, of the rattlesnake family, and a Mr. Thomas Backus, who then owned the land there, endeavored to destroy the serpents, by keeping a fire, during the winter months, in a cave, where the snakes had entered their den. This expedient, not succeeding, he fenced in the den, and put a large number of hogs into it. This effected his object, and very few of these serpents are now found at, or near the place.

Why the bite of this serpent should not injure the hog, we do not know, unless it be, on the principle, that oil is an antidote to the poison of the serpent. The oil of olives, is known to be an antidote, and the fat of the hog may be so, likewise.

The hog is fond of eating the serpent, and his poison is no

protection against this, his worst enemy. We have two or three species of black snake, very long and slender, one with a white ring around his neck. We have water snakes of several species and the common garter snake, but none of our serpents are poisonous, except the rattle snake, and the copperhead. The two latter, are mostly confined now, to our hilly region, and will soon be gone. We have three species of tortoises, viz: large black, small brown, with yellow spots on its shell, and the soft shelled tortoise. The latter lives wholly in the water, and is equal to the sea turtle, for food. It weighs from six to ten pounds, sometimes more.

Lizzards are common in the woods, and in pleasant weather bask on old logs, in the sun shine. Newts are common, in our waters. And in the Ohio river, and indeed, in all our rivers, is an animal, between the newt and alligator, and is often taken on hooks set for fishes. It is sometimes two, or, even three feet in length, and of a most disgusting appearance. Is it the Proteus-lateralis?

Cray fishes are quite abundant, in our low lands, some of which are six inches long, weighing eight ounces. They taste like the lobster, and have the property of reproducing their antennæ, when broken off. Their limbs when cooked, taste like the lobster or oyster-saltish. We have all sorts of frogs and toads. Our bull frogs are larger than any east of the

mountains.

Our insects are too numerous to be even enumerated, unless we devoted a large space to them. One of the most interesting and curious, is the cicada. It is somewhat smaller than the harvest fly. They are said to appear at regular periods, which some persons have fixed at once in seven years. Others have asserted, that these periodical returns are once in fourteen years-others say, once in seventeen years. His common name is "locust," he appears by the middle of May, and they are all gone, early in July. When he first appears, on the surface of the earth, he resembles a grub worm; is half an inch long, and three-eighths of an inch in diameter. He rises from the earth, perpendicularly, by a hole, which he makes,

with equal ease through any kind of soil, whether of sand or of clay. They first appear on the surface, in the night, and are then white and soft. They crawl up some bush, tree or limb, and wait until the sun dries their shells, which envelope them. This shell bursts on the insect's back, out of which prison the locust crawls. Their bodies are very tender at first, and they cannot then, either crawl or fly far. In this state they remain one night, their bodies still moist, their wings expanding, and during the day following, they begin to fly a few feet, at a time, and by the first night, they can fly several rods. The insect has now arrived at full maturity. When the state was first settled by us, and during twenty years afterwards, wild bees were very numerous. The Indians collected great quantities of honey, and sold barrels of it to the white settlers. In the woods along the Ohio river, but more still in the forests immediately around all our prairies, bees lived in the hollow trees. During all the warm weather, these useful and industrious insects hovered over the profusion of wild flowers in these meadows, and flew through the air to and from their homes. Along the intervals of all our rivers among the wild roses and sweet briars, they plied their busy work, spun through the air like so many wires, in right lines, and lulled to rest, the wild man, by their buzzing, humming music. But they are become scarce, and tame bees have not, as yet supplied their place. We rear but few bees, and honey is not often seen in the state. Why, we do not know.

BOTANY.