Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1880-07-15
The Echis Carinata.

From the London Telegraph.
A recent arrival at the biological Socie-
tvs gardens, in Regents park, deserves
official notice apart from the fact that it Is
the first of its species known to have been
brought to England 1t is snake, called
the echis carinata, about foot and hat
long, and of dinpy gray. Yet, although
in appearance neither interesting nor for
midable, it is the deadliest OF created
things. This dctestable little worm,
which, looking at it, the spectator might
make Lold to say he could initiate very
passably in cork and putty, is nevertheless
one Of the miracles and masterpieces OF
nature; for it is death itself, and carries
in its tiny head the secret Of destroying
life with the sudden rapidity Of Lightning
and the concentrated agony ofall polsons.
The cchis comes to us from India, where it
is tolerably common, being found IN near
ly every part of the peninsula, and feared
wherever found as the incRnation Of in
slant and terrible destruction. Fortunate
| ly, however, for man, it is not, like the
cobra and the korait, a house frequenting
snake; for its tiny size would give it a
terrible advantage over human beings who
live crowded together, as the natives ot
India do, in small, dMkened rooms. while
its aggressive habits would make it in
finitely more fatal to life than Its dreaded
relatives. For this king Of the asps, this
modern basilsk, is not only venomOus be-
yOnd conception, but is actively offensive
1t does not turn to escape from man, as
the cobra will, or flash into concealmcnt
like the koriat, but, conscious perhaps Of
its deadlinCss, deliberately keeps the path
against its human assailant, and putting
its own eighteen inches Of length against
its hulk, challenges and proyokes the con-
hict. A stroke with Il whip will cut it in
two, or a clod of earth disable it; but
such is its malignty that it will invite at
tack by every device at its command,
stalking its own life on the mere chance Of
its adversary coming within the little
circle Of its power. AT most the radius of
this circle is twelve inches, but within it,
at any point, lies certain death, and, on
the bare hope of hand or foot trespassing
within its reach, the echis throws its body
into figure. .Of.eight coil, and attracting
attention by rubbing its loops together,
which from the rcughness Of the scales
hence the epithet carinata-makes Il rust
ling, Kissing sound, erects its head IN the
centre and awaits attack. No One having
once encountered this terrible worm can
ever forget its truculent aspect when thus
aroused, its eagerly aggressive air, its rest
less coils, which are in constant motion
one over the other, and rustling ominously
all the while, stcalthily but surely bling
it nearer and nearer to the object of its
fuzzy; the eye, malignant even beyond
those of other vipers, and then the incon'
ceivable rapidity of its stroke. For the
echis does not wait to strike until 1t is
within striking distance, but vents its
malice in repeatedly darting at nothing,
hoping, perhaps, to aggravate its antagon-
ist into coming to closer quarters, or, more
probably, as Il mere expression OF its own
uncomfortable viciousness.