was in darkness at the winter solstice, is now, in consequence of the earth's axis having maintained its parallelism, turned towards the sun, and the south pole is deprived of his cheering rays. In short, every circumstance is exactly reversed, as it respects the seasons, to what they were on the 21st of December. Lastly, the earth arrives at the autumnal equinox Sept. 23. The sun is rising at the south pole, and setting to the northern regions; in every other respect the earth is in a similar situation to what it was at the vernal equinox. The earth, unwearied in its course, pursues the same track, and once more arrives at the winter solstice, and continues the succession of summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, which we are assured shall not cease. It is to the phenomena of the seasons, combined with the alternation of day and night, that we are indebted for those grateful vicissitudes, on which so much both of our business and happiness depends. Man is here in a state of probation, or preparation for a nobler existence; having duties which he is tempted to omit, or at least to procrastinate. To remind him of the lapse of time, of that the period of his residence here being but of short duration, all the appearances of nature uniformly conspire: the day and night succeed each other; the rotation of the seasons diversifies the year; the sun attains the meridian, declines, and sets; and the moon each night changes her form; all tending to awaken the drowsiness of hesitation in man to a resolution to work while it is called to-day. "The day may be considered as an image of the year, and a year as the representation of life. The morning answers to the spring, and the spring to childhood and youth. The noon corresponds to the summer, and the summer to the strength of manhood. The evening is an emblem of autumn, and autumn of declining life. The night, with its silence and darkness, shows the winter, in which all the powers of vegetation are benumbed; and the winter points out the time when life shall cease, with its hopes and pleasures. "He that is carried forward, however swiftly, by a motion equable and easy, perceives not the change of place, but by the variation of objects. If the wheel of life, which rolls thus silently along, passed on through undistinguishable uniformity, we should never mark its approaches to the end of the course. If one hour were like another; if the passages of the sun did not show its wasting; if the change of seasons did not impress upon us the flight of the year; quantities of duration equal to days and years would glide away unobserved. If the parts of time were not variously coloured, we should never discern their departure or succession; but should live thoughtless of the past, and careless of the future; without will, and perhaps without power, to compare the time which is already lost with that which may probably remain. "But the course of time is so visibly marked, that it is even observed by nations who have raised their minds but very little above animal instinct. That these admonitions of nature may have their due effect, let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed; and remember, that every moment of delay takes away something from the value of his benefaction. "And let him who proposes his own happiness reflect, that, while he forms his purpose, the day rolls on, and the night cometh when no man can work." FREE GRACE INDEED. THE gospel of Christ invites all that are athirst to come to him, and he will give them of the fountain of the water of life freely; and assures the trembling sinner, that him that cometh to the Saviour, he will in nowise cast out. As, therefore, all the blessings of salvation are freely given, for Christ's sake, to the poor supplicant, however unworthy, nothing but pride, unbelief, contempt of heavenly things, aversion to God and religion, or idolatrous love of the world, can exclude any sinner from this great salvation. Every part of the plan is free from ambiguity; our wants are distinctly stated; promises are given exactly answering to them; means are appointed in which we may apply for the performance of these promises; and God pledges the honour of his faithfulness, that every one who seeks the blessing in his appointed way, shall certainly obtain it.— Scott. ON THE IGUANA. The Iguana. WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE LIZARDS GENERALLY. THE Saurian, or Lizard tribe of reptiles, containing a vast multitude of curious, interesting, and often beautiful creatures, whose forms and colours are alike calculated to excite attention, has unfortunately been the butt of popular prejudices, which in these days of spreading knowledge, are, we hope, yielding to the voice of reason teaching us, in accordance with the express words of the Almighty Creator, that all are made "in wisdom." Let any person, even the most fastidious, look at that brilliant little animal the green lizard, (Lacerta viridis,) so common in the south of France and Italy, and occurring also in the island of Guernsey, and say what is there in it to excite horror or disgust. Its lithe and agile form, its sparkling eyes, its rich and effective colouring, and its nimble movements, claim our admiration. The chamelion, on the contrary, slow in its actions, and far less elegant in appearance than the green lizard, has long excited general attention from the rapid changing of the colours of its skin, a point in which it is not alone among the lizard tribe. With feet and claws admirably adapted for clinging to the twigs and slender branches of trees; with a prehensile tail; with eyes gifted with the power of movements independently of each other; and with a long fleshy tongue, capable of being launched out to a great distance, and that with arrowlike rapidity and precision; the chamelion is in itself a study for the naturalist. The geckos, again, with expanded toes and retractile claws, like those of the cat, and endowed with the power of traversing walls and ceilings, as does the common house-fly; and the flying lizards with their parachutes; interest us by their structural peculiarities. It is true that among the saurians we have the fierce and the terrific, as well as the gentle and elegant; the gavial, the crocodile, and the alligator rank among them: but are these tyrants of the river and lagoon destitute of interest? Is there no proof of the wisdom and power of God in their habits, manners, and organization, to delight the reflective mind of him who loves to trace God in all his ways? Let our reader, before he answers No, turn to an account of the "gular valve of the crocodile," in the Visitor for 1836, p. 63, and read it attentively. But why demand for the saurians that attention which the lover of nature does not refuse; or advocate the interest attached to the study of a tribe which the slightest consideration must allow ? G G The class Reptilia* contains the following orders or great groups:-1. The Tortoises, or Chelonia;† 2. The Lizards, or Sauria; 3. The Serpents, or Ophidia? The amphibia, || formerly associated with the reptilia, constitute a distinct class; their body is covered with a soft naked skin; they all commence life as aquatic animals, having gills for the respiration of water, which are subsequently lost, true lungs for aërial respiration becoming then developed; in some species, however, as in the proteus, (see Weekly Visitor for 1834, p. 25,) the gills, or branchia, are persistent through life, and accompanied with lungs, and heart with one auricle, and one ventricle. The frog, the toad, the water-newt, (or Triton, Laurenti,) the axolotl of Mexico, and the proteus of the caverns of Carniola, are examples of this order. On the other hand, the reptilia have the body always covered with scales or hard plates, or granulated points imbedded in the skin, heart with two auricles, and one ventricle. The lungs are extensive, consisting of a tissue of large cellules; the young undergo no transformations from water-breathing to air-breathing animals. The majority of species are oviparous; some serpents are ovo-viviparous. The passage from the chelonia to the sauria is very apparent; the testudo serpentina, for example, approximating closely to the crocodiles, and forming a distinct union between the two; nor is the passage from the sauria to the ophidia less marked; the genera scincus, seps, and bipes, running very palpably into the blind worms (anguis,) and the amphisbæna. It is with the sauria that we are immediately concerned at present. In our northern latitudes, unless by becoming acquainted with them through the medium of works or museums, we can form no idea of the multitude and variety of saurians which tenant the hotter regions of the globe. A limited number of species, and these all small, inhabit our island, and the parallel and more northern countries of the continent; but as we pass southwards, their number increases, and some among them occur of unexpected dimensions; as for example, that beautiful species, the lacerta ocellata, that largest of European lizards, *Repto, to creep. Αμφι-βιος, double life. measuring fourteen or fifteen inches in length, independently of the tail. It is found in the south of France, in Spain, and in Italy. Its ground colour is rich green, elegantly marked with eyes of violet. Passing still farther south, and arriving at the borders of the intertropical latitudes, we enter their crowded empire, which extends throughout the equatorial regions. Here, beneath a glowing sun, where nature assumes her most gigantic forms-where mighty forests clothe the soil, and marshes nourish a luxuriant vegetation-revelling in their congenial abode, the saurian tribes teem on every side, presenting an almost endless diversity of forms and hues. Diversified, too, in their habits as in their appearance, they astonish or interest, please or repel. Some tenant the trees, chasing their insect prey with great agility; some are exclusively terrestrial, and conceal themselves in holes and fissures; some burrow in the sand, and that with such extraordinary rapidity, that they appear to have found rather than made a hiding place. Some, and these are the largest and most formidable of the race, are aquatic; for during time immemorial has the crocodile been celebrated for his prowess. The heat of the sun seems peculiarly grateful to all the sauria; our own little lacerta agilis may be seen on fine warm days in summer basking in the genial beams of the "orb of day," but ever on the watch against the approach of intruders. The crocodile will lie on the bank, or on the surface of the water, enjoying the warmth, and sunk in slumber. Walls, and banks, and trees are often seen covered by lizards of mingled hues, attracted from their lurking places by the meridian sun. "I am positive,' says Mr. Bruce, "and I can say without exaggeration, that the number I saw one day in the great court of the temple of the sun at Balbec amounted to many thousands: the ground, the walls, and the stones of the ruined buildings were covered by them, and the various colours of which they consisted made a very extraordinary appearance, glittering under the sun, in which they lay sleeping and basking." Like the snake tribe, the sauria moult their cuticle during the spring or summer, after which they appear in brighter colours; during the winter they hybernate, at least in our northern clime, and also in the warmer regions of southern Europe, retiring to holes in the ground, and the chinks of old walls, etc., in which they pass the months of cold, and (as to them they would be) of famine. In the intertropical regions their retirement is less continuous, and cannot be termed hybernation; the rainy seasons may drive them to their retreats for a time, but it does not appear that they sink into a state of torpor ; and in dry climates, as Arabia, Egypt, etc., where they abound in incredible multitudes, they do not, as far as we can learn, disappear for any season of the year, but may be always seen. None of the sauria are poisonous; none have venom-fangs, though the ancients regarded many as deadly in the extreme. Of these the basilisk* was especially celebrated. Our classical readers will remember Lucan's description of this lizard, the fancied pest of the deserts of Africa. "But fiercely hissing through the poisoned air, The light of knowledge has dispelled these errors, the fruits of ignorance and credulity, and with them another error respecting some of these reptiles; namely, their medicinal properties. One species of lizard, the adda of the Arabians, (Scincus officinalis,) once obtained a place in the Materia Medica; its flesh was regarded as a restorative, and of great use in leprosy, and other diseases. It was one of the ingredients in that compound known as theriaca, or Confectis Damocratis, the wild exuberance, as Dr. Lewis expresses it, of medical superstition in former ages. Till very lately, the belief in the medicinal virtues of the scincus continued in Arabia: it seems, however, to have passed away; for Bruce observing that the el adda is one of the few lizards which the Arabs have in all times believed to be free from poisonous qualities, and yet to have all the medical virtues so abundantly lavished upon the more noxious species, adds, that the character of these reptiles seems to be greatly on the decline in their native regions, and though the books prescribing them are in every body's hands, yet the medicine is not now made use of in the places where the books were written. If, however, the lizard race are desti* With this fabulous animal of antiquity must not be confounded an American species allied to the iguanas, and constituting the genus basiliscus, Daud., and which we shall presently notice. tute of medicinal properties, many of them continue to hold a high rank as articles of luxury for the table. Of these the iguanas, or guanas, deserve our particular notice. The iguanas (gen. Iguana, Cuv.) are large lizards peculiar to the warmer portions of America and the West Indian Islands: they are distinguished by a serrated dorsal crest along the spine, consisting of compressed, elevated, and pointed scales, and by the large pendulous dewlap of skin under the throat, which is capable of being inflated. The scales of the body are small and imbricated; those on the head are in the form of plates, and constitute a sort of tesselated pavement; the tail is of great length, and more or less compressed laterally. A range of tuberculous pores runs down the inside of each thigh; the jaws are encircled by a row of compressed triangular teeth, with notched cutting edges, and two small rows are also on the posterior edge of the palate. The iguanas are arboreal in their habits, and feed both on insects and vegetables; they occasionally visit the water, in which they swim with ease and rapidity, putting their limbs close to their bodies, and lashing the tail from side to side in a serpentine manner, and with great vigour. Of a fierce aspect, they are nevertheless easily tamed; but during the pairing season the male is savage, watches constantly over his mate, and becomes furious if any one approaches her, biting with great severity. The incessant destruction of some of the species, for the sake of their flesh, has rendered them very scarce, if not altogether extinct in localities where they were once abundant; nor are their eggs, also in high estimation, exempt from the rapacity of man. The common mode of catching these animals, is by throwing a noose over their heads, and pulling them down from the branch on which they are resting: this is easily done, for when discovered, they seldom attempt to escape, but gaze at their assailants, inflating their throat prodigiously, and assuming as formidable an air as possible. The common iguana, or guana, (Iguana tuberculata, or Iguana delicatissima,) is found very generally throughout intertropical America, and often attains to the length of five feet. Its flesh is white and delicate, but is found to disagree with some constitutions. Catesby informs us, that many of the Bahama innocent and beautiful creature in that state." The iguanas we have seen in captivity in England, appeared to be slow and stupid, with no small degree of fierceness in their temper; indeed, on one occasion, a large iguana, which permitted its owner to handle it without resentment, made several snaps at the writer, when he attempted to take the same liberty, and put on a menacing aspect indicative of anger. The general colour of this species is green, more or less tinged with olive, or yellowish, marbled with a purer and brighter tint; the tail is ringed with dusky black. islands abound with these animals, "where they nestle in hollow rocks and trees their eggs have not a hard shell like those of alligators, but a skin only, like those of a turtle, and are esteemed | a good food. They lay a great number of eggs at a time in the earth, which are hatched by the sun's heat. These guanas are a great part of the subsistence of the inhabitants of the Bahama islands, for which purpose they visit many of the remote kayes and islands in their sloops to catch them, which they do by dogs trained up for that purpose, which are so dexterous as not often to kill them. If they do so, however, the guanas then serve only for present use; if otherwise, A third species, closely allied to the they sew up their mouths to prevent common iguana, is found in St. Domingo, their biting, and put them into the hold and was first described by Lacepede. of their sloop until they have obtained a From a conical bony point between the sufficient number, which they either eyes, and two raised scales over the carry alive for sale to Carolina, or salt | nostrils, it is termed Iguana coronata. and barrel up for the use of their families at home.~ These guanas feed wholly on vegetables and fruit, particularly on a kind of fungus growing at the roots of trees, and on the fruits of the different kinds of annonas. Their flesh is easy of digestion, delicate and well-tasted; they are sometimes roasted, but the more common way is to boil them, taking out the fat, which is melted and clarified, and put into a dish, into which they dip the flesh of the guana as they eat it."..... "Though not amphibious, they are said to keep under water above an hour. They cannot run fast, their holes being a greater security to them than their heels. They are so impatient of cold, that they rarely appear out of their holes but when the sun shines." Brown, in his Natural History of Jamaica, (an island where the guana is almost exterminated,) says, that like most of the tribe, this animal "lives a very considerable time without food, and changes its colour with the weather, or the native moisture of its place of residence." "I have kept," he adds, "a grown guana about the house for more than two months; it was very fierce and ill-natured at the beginning, but after some days it grew more tame, and would at length pass the greatest part of the day upon the bed or couch, but always went out at night. The flesh of this creature is liked by many people, and frequently served up in fricassees at their tables, in which state it is often preferred to the best fowls. The guana may be easily tamed while young, and is both an The genus Basiliscus, Daud., differs from the iguana in wanting. femoral pores; the body is covered with small scales, and along the back and tail there runs a continuous and elevated crest, sustained by the elongated spinous processes of the vertebral column. The basilisk, (Lacerta Basiliscus of Linn.) which, as we have said, must not be confounded with the fabulous basilisk of the African deserts, so renowned in the imaginative works of the ancients, is a native of Guiana, and though of large size and formidable appearance, is perfectly harmless. Its head is surmounted by a membranous elevation, like a raised hood or cap, and sustained by cartilage; this renders its aspect very peculiar. Grain and vegetable matters form its chief diet; in habits, like the iguana, it is arboreal, but often takes to the water, swimming with great ease and vigour. Its colour is dusky blue, with two white stripes, one arising behind each eye, and one from each jaw, which extend over the shoulders, and are there blended with the tint of the body. M. HAPPINESS. Ir thou desire happiness, desire not to be rich: he is rich, not who possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is poor, not that enjoys little, but he that wants too much: the contented mind wants nothing that it hath not, the covetous mind wants, not only what it hath not, but likewise what it hath.Quarles. |