How Serpents Climb

Otago Witness, Issue 1752, 20 June 1885, Page 27

How Serpents Climb

The movement of a snake iv climbing a porpeudicuiar surface, aa I have ob^ervod, Fays a writer, is a vermicular, undulating motion, not spiral but straight up the face of the surface. I have seen a black snake thus glide up a bsach <rea with that easy, careless grace of movement which is characteristic of that snako when moving over hoiizontal surfaces. Th 9 bark of the b?ech affords few inequalities into which the edges of ths gaatrnlegal band* could bo thrust claw fa&hion, and I have no doubt that atmosphoric pressure ia the force that holds tho snake against such surfaces in climbing, sucker fashion, as the boy lifts tho brick with tho piece of wet weather. I once knew a black iroake to aaceud a stucco wall to the eaves of a carriage house to the swallows' uesfc, straight up the up-and-down boards. I have seen them glide from tree" to tree and leap down near the top of large trees, but never saw one descend by cUrnbiug 1 down a smooth perpondicuiivr sm.aco. I Lave no doubt, of their ability to do so, however. Ido not bslieve that this power is enjoyed by the oopperhead or rattloamik^ 1 , or any venomous sort with which I am familiar, they being heavy and sluggish in their movements. I have seen them go up on leaning trees and crawl into the foliage of bushes, however,