Animal, it being sacred unto the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and the common symbol of Sanity.’ But, alas! many spiny-tailed snakes have sprung to light in various countries, long since Sir Thomas Browne so wisely instructed his readers; and even now, the ‘death adder of Australia (_Acanthophis antarctica_) is much dreaded on account of its thorn-like tail.’ Krefft’s[51] description of the repulsive aspect of this snake is sufficiently terrifying, apart altogether from its looks alone, its ragged-looking head, with its loose scales, thick body, and its short, rough, unmistakeable tail, terminating in a suspicious-looking point, as if one sharp spine had taken root there, and was capable of inflicting a wound. The tail spine hardens only in age, he tells us, and ‘is really not a weapon either of attack or defence.’ [Illustration: Death Adder (from Krefft’s _Snakes of Australia_).] Another tail of evil repute belongs to the Water Viper of the United States, vernacularly known as the ‘Thorn-tail’ snake, _Trigonocephalus piscivorus_ of American herpetologists. John Lawson, in his _History of Carolina_, published in 1707, was one of the first to describe it. After him we hear of it from Catesby. The quaint descriptions of each of these early travellers are amusing; and from such accounts the progress of science is traced. ‘Of the Horn Snake,’ says Lawson, ‘I never saw but two that I remember. They are like the Rattlesnake in Colour, but rather lighter. They hiss exactly like a Goose when anything approaches them. They strike at their Enemy with their Tail, and kill whatsoever they wound with it, which is armed at the End with a Horny Substance like a Cock’s Spur. This is their Weapon. I have heard it credibly reported by those who said they were Eye-Witnesses, that a small Locust Tree, about the Thickness of a Man’s Arm, being struck by one of these Snakes at Ten o’clock in the Morning, then verdant and flourishing, at Four in the Afternoon was dead, and the Leaves dead and withered.’ (Probably the tree had been struck by lightning during the interval, a very frequent occurrence in those parts.) ‘Doubtless, be it how it will, they are very venomous. I think the Indians do not pretend to cure their wound.’ When Lawson travelled, setting out in December 1700, as an appointed ‘Surveyor-General’ of the newly settled colony of North Carolina, very little was known of the natural history and productions of those parts, and he relied on the native tribes for much of his information. His work was dedicated ‘To His Excellency, William Lord Craven, Palatine; The Most Noble Henry, Duke of Beaufort; The Right Hon. John Lord Carteret; and the rest of the True and Absolute Lords, Proprietors of the Province of Carolina in America.’ ‘As a Debt of Gratitude the Sheets were laid at their Lordships’ Feet, having nothing to recommend them but Truth, a Gift which every Author may be Master of if he will.’