THE SERPENT'S TRAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 10 June 1907, Page 1

THE SERPENT'S TRAIL.

! (Written fee the "Evening Mail.") , This has never crossed New Zoaland, ' Even the four-footed reptiles are insig- ■ nificant, and the three-eyed, tuatara ii driven to wild islands of the colony, there to slink in holes. The tuatara, though so like a lizard, is not a lizard at ! all. There is something almost attrac , tive about a lizard with its quid dashes and long pauses, but this strang< 'relic of a by-gone eas-th, this link be 1 tween our age and that of hideous mon sters is in no way attractive except tc ] naturalists ; the creatures don't ever fight each other by honest biting, as dogs would, but slowly eat pieces out . of each other, leaving raw flesh. j This by-gone earth, upon the remains of which the Colony is settled, nevei , knew man, beast, or serpent, so there I was no fear or dt-ead of man upon thc birds ; they, the lawful owners of the soil, welcomed him as their friend. Se« how the fantail comes twittering round, catching a fly not 12 inches from youi face, then perches delicately, swallows the morsel daintily and spreads her tail as though to say "Good day to you, Here's luck." But the reptile's heart is a horrid thing. There are men with such hearts. Give them a wide berth, for they may be poisonous. The actual heart of a reptile has only three compartments, against four of the heart of man and beast. These three compartments comprise twe auricles and one pump cc ventricle. One auricle receives from the veins the blood which has done its work of nourishing the body and passes it along into the ventricle. The other auricle receives from the lungs the blood which been there renovated and passes it also into the ventricle, and this poor mixture is then pumped away by the ventricle through two tubes — one leading to the lungs, the othce to the organs and muscles of the body for their nourishment. The lung, too, is a sorry affair. There are no bronchial tubes, and the surface exposed to the air is miserably small, the posterior extremity being little better than a bag. This will explain the sluggishness of reptiles, though under a sudden stimulus they _ce capable of great activity, but seem to be soon exhausted* and can enjoy long periods of absolute quiet. They live long because they live slow. A tuatara has been known to live during three generations of Maoris. What a contrast this with the insect which has no heart at all, his muscles and organs being all immersed in the blood which is kept renovated by air drawn in through numerous breathing mouths along air passages ,- his nerve centres are scattered all over him, he is just brains and bustle like an American business man. But, alas, for that unhappy mammal, man ! He has a heart to suffer, a cheek to blanch, a body to bleed, he has an elaborate pumping machine and nervous system which enables him to enjoy a higher degree of torture than any creature on this earth ; and that foul serpent can easily poison his sacred blood, whereas the serpent's blood must be in itself poisonous or contain all the necessary ingredients for the manufacture of poison. Yet, how universal is the worship of the -Serpent or Dragon : — Persians, Chinese, Hindus, African Negroes, Celts, Peruvians, have all bowed before this symbol of a mighty cruelly destroys, for in truth menlove a delusion until it is exposed. Again, is there anything more odious than coldblooded respectability rearing its serpent head to strike with venom all who vex it! But happily, men in New Zealand are free to be men if they willHorrible though the snake may be, his structure is interesting. Consider the. ball-and-socket joints of the vertebrae. The music-hall contortionist seeks to be like this. One python has over 400 of these bones, which form the spinal column, and curiously enough, this creature has a rudimentary pelvis and short hind legs terminating in claws, which shows how- difficult it is to sharply define and classify species. The common slow-worm, ,a harmless English snake, is really a lizard without legs. It may be asked what is the use of the rudimentaiy internal eye of the Tuatara or the internal pelvis and legs of some reptiles, or the internal thigh of a whale, which in one case is no biggtt- than a marble? Well, ask a. tailor why he puts buttons on the back of a swallow-tail coat; ask a potter why he gives his peculiar characteristic touch to all his work? Creations aro not merely utilitarian, they are eloquent, speaking of the past, the present, tho future. Why was the tui or parson bird an exact picture of a clergyman's tie before clergy existed ? To return to our reptiles, it may be, but as regards all these matters one cannot help asking oneself to what good purpose they were deigned, for no one can look into nature without being forced to the conclusion that a sinister influence has been at work tending constantly to the weird, the grotesque, the cruel, the hideous? There is evidence of the presence of an erratic, wilful, but mighty intelligent, subordinate, but 1 tending to break away from control. It is the Serpent's trail, and long may New Zealand be free from its defile- j ment. _ H. L. MACHELL. 7th June, '07. —