of this river to Goulburn Plains, then passes through a narrow ridge to Bredalbane Plains, and again through another to Yass Plains, which extend on the other side of the range between Yass River and Morrumbidgee River. This range is not rich in metals. Copper has been found near Bathurst, and tin and lead in some other places; but coal seems to be abundant, especially at Newcastle, towards the Hunter River. Besides, there is plenty of granite and whinstone, pipe and potter's clay, limestone, gypsum or plaster of Paris, and alum. (Oxley; Sturt; P. Cunningham; Society's Map.)

sequence to the bishops of Durham in former times, and are named in their records with the Tyne, Wear, and Tees, as being subject to their jurisdiction. The prelates of that diocese still have jurisdiction over the river and the wastes between high and low water marks. The river Blyth rises about twenty-five miles inland, and its general course is east by north, from which it makes one great bend to the north after it has passed Stamfordham. On resuming its general course it receives its largest tributary from the north-west, after which it goes on nearly in the same direction for about nine miles, when it receives anBLUE RIDGE. [See APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS.] other stream from the north-west, after which it inclines to BLUNDELL MUSEUM, an assemblage of choice spe- the south-east, and enters the ocean, after a total course of cimens of sculpture, consisting of statues, busts, bas-re- about thirty-seven miles. The Blyth abounds with sea fish liefs, sarcophagi, cinerary urns, and other antient marbles, near its mouth; and those fresh-water fish that frequent the collected by the late Henry Blundell, Esq., and preserved at higher parts of the stream are of very fine quality. The his seat at Ince-Blundell in the parish of Sefton in Lanca- shore near its æstuary affords abundance of muscles, which shire, about nine miles north of Liverpool. A large por- are used for bait by the fishermen of the neighbouring places. tion are placed in a building attached to the mansion called Blyth harbour is so safe that an instance rarely occurs the Pantheon, exactly resembling the edifice of that name of a vessel sustaining damage in entering it in the most in Rome, though one-third less in lineal dimensions, erected tempestuous weather. In full tides there are ten feet of for the purpose of containing them; a few modern sculp-water on the bar; when there are only eight feet, statures are also in this collection, among which a Psyche by tionary lights are exhibited in the harbour. The tide flows Canova is the most valuable. up to the dam at the Bedlington iron-works, four miles and a half from the mouth of the river. The place was of very trifling consequence previously to the Restoration, when it appears to have contained scarcely any houses. It must after that have rapidly increased, as we find that in 1728 not fewer than 200 vessels are entered in the custom-house books as having sailed from this port. Its trade would seem to have declined after this: towards the latter part of the last century there were only a few small sloops belonging to the port; but the opening of the Cowpen colliery, near the end of the century, materially contributed to the increase of its trade, which consists chiefly in the export of coal and iron from Bedlington, and sometimes corn. Thirty or forty sail of laden vessels sometimes sail in one tide. They usually return in ballast; few articles are imported, except such timber and stores as are required for the shipping. About 100 vessels now belong to the port, which is regarded as a sort of creek to that of Newcastle.

Two folio volumes of Engravings and Etchings, from the principal of these marbles, were prepared by Mr. Blundell for distribution among his friends in 1809: some of these had been made at Rome, before the marbles left that city, and others were executed in London. Mr. Blundell was in Italy at the same time with his friend Mr. Charles Townley, and not only collected with a kindred taste, but was frequently guided in his choice of purchases by Mr. Townley's advice.

Blyth is a pleasant and well built little place. It has a custom-house, subject to that of Newcastle; two ship insurance companies, and several dock-yards, in which vessels of 430 tons have been built. There is a neat chapel of ease, which was erected in 1751 by Sir M. W. Ridley, the proprietor of the estate; and to which a Sunday-school has since been annexed. Different denominations of dissenters have four places of worship at Blyth.

Among the statues of highest character in the Blundell Museum are-1. A Minerva found at Ostia, for many years in the Lanti palace, and afterwards the property of Mr. Jenkins, from whom it was bought; larger than life. 2. Diana, found in the ruins of the Emperor Gordian's villa; the full size of life: bought of the sculptor Albacini. 3. Theseus, seven feet two inches high; found in Hadrian's villa: purchased from the Duke of Modena, in the centre of the saloon at whose villa at Tivoli it stood. 4. Esculapius, from the Villa Mattei, nearly seven feet high. 5. A consular figure, in good preservation, nearly resembling that called Cicero in the Arundelian Collection at Oxford; this also was bought from the Prince Mattei, 6. Another Minerva, seven feet high, which formerly belonged to Pope Sixtus V.; bought out of the Negroni collection. 7. A statue representing the province Bithynia, bought out of the Villa D'Este from the Duke of Modena. 8. Faustina, The township of South Blyth and Newsham contained the wife of Marcus Aurelius; the head, feet, and hands 248 houses in 1831, when the population was 1769, of whom of Parian marble; the drapery in Lesbian marble, a 977 were females. This however does not convey a true kind of opaque basalt. 9. A group of two statues, an old idea of the extent and population of the town, as it only faun and an hermaphrodite, the work of Bupalus, whose comprehends that part of it which lies in the parish of Earsname is upon the plinth; it was found by Niccola la Pic-don, but, adding to the account that part in the township of cola in an excavation on the Præneste road, 1776; small Cowpen, parish of Horton, the actual population must exlife, about three feet high. Among the busts are those of ceed 3000. Septimius Severus and Otho, both bought out of the Mattei Villa; Augustus and Marciana, found at Ostia; and Ælius Cæsar, the adopted heir of Hadrian, which was also purchased from the Prince Mattei. Among the miscellaneous marbles of this collection are three tragic masks of rare and unusual size; two from the Villa Negroni, three feet each in height; the third from the Altieri Villa. Some idea may be formed of the extent of this collection from the fact There are few fables which have not some truth for their that it consists of near 100 statues, 150 busts, above 100 bas-origin. The voyages of Sinbad have become proverbial, reliefs, 90 sarcophagi and cinerary urns, besides stela, and other miscellaneous antiquities.

1800.)

(Hutchinson's View of Northumberland; Historical and Descriptive View of Northumberland, &c.)

BOA (zoology), the name of a family of serpents which are without venom, the absence of which is amply compensated by immense muscular power, enabling some of the species to kill large animals by constriction, preparatory to swallowing them whole.

but the stories of the monstrous serpents in the valley of diamonds, and of the serpent of surprising length and (See the Beauties of England and Wales, vol. ix. Lan- thickness, whose scales made a rustling as he wound himcashire, pp. 308, 309; the Engravings and Etchings al-self along, that swallowed up two of his companions, proready quoted; and Dallaway's Anecdotes of the Arts, 8vo. bably had their foundation in traditions of the size and strength of a family of serpents belonging to the old world, but nearly allied in their organization and habits to those which we are about to consider. Sinbad's description indeed of the fate of the first of the two victims brings to our memory a terrible anecdote of the murderous power and voracity of the Indian boas or pythons related in modern times, and recorded on canvas by Daniell. [See PYTHON.] It (the serpent) swallowed up,' says the fictitious sailor. one of my comrades, notwithstanding his loud cries and the efforts he made to extricate himself.

BLUNDERBUSS. [See ARMS.] BLYTH, or SOUTH BLYTH, or BLYTH NOOK, a small seaport town in the county of Northumberland, partly in the parish of Horton, but chiefly in that of Earsdon, and in the east division of Castle ward, distant from London 257 miles, N. by W., and from Newcastle 12 miles N. by E. It derives its name from its situation on the south side of the river Blyth, at its confluence with the German Ocean. The town owes its origin and prosperity to its commodious and safe haven for small vessels. The navigable river and port of Blyth are mentioned as of con

Of the same race probably were the monsters to which: the following allusions are made by antient writers.

always victorious. A negro herdsman belonging to Mr. Abson (who afterwards limped for many years about the fort) had been seized by one of these monsters by the thigh; but from his situation in a wood, the serpent, in attempting to throw himself around him, got entangled with a tree; and the man, being thus preserved from a state of compression, which would instantly have rendered him quite powerless, had presence of mind enough to cut with a large knife, which he carried about with him, deep gashes in the neck and throat of his antagonist, thereby killing him, and disengaging himself from his frightful situation. He never afterwards, however, recovered the use of that limb, which had sustained considerable injury from his fangs and the mere force of his jaws. All these gigantic serpents were, most probably, the Pythons of modern nomenclature. According to Pliny, the name Boa was given to these serpents because they were said to be at first nourished by the milk of cows; and Jonston and others observe, that they derived the name not so much from their power of swallowing oxen, as from a story current in old times of their following the herds and sucking their udders. Boa is also stated by some to be the Brazilian name for a serpent. Among modern systematic writers, Linnæus may be con sidered as the first establisher of the genus. Laurenti, Boddaert, Daubenton, Schneider, Lacépède, Latreille, and others adopted it, in many instances with alterations and corrections. At one time the genus comprehended all serpents, venomous or not, the under part of whose body and tail were furnished with scaly transverse bands, or scuta, formed of one piece only, and which had neither spur nor rattle at the end of the tail. After the venomous serpents were separated from them, they were found sufficiently numerous and were again subdivided.

Aristotle (book viii. c. 28) writes of Libyan serpents of enormous size, and relates, that certain voyagers to that coast were pursued by some of them so large that they overset one of the triremes. The two monstrous snakes (aivà réλwpa) sent by Juno to strangle the infant Hercules in his cradle, described by Theocritus in his 24th Idyll, exhibit some of the peculiarities of these reptiles. The way in which Theocritus represents them to have olled their folds around the boy, and relaxed them when ying in his grasp, indicates the habit of a constricting serpent*. Virgil's Laocoon, and the unrivalled marble group, which the poet's description most probably called into existence, owe their origin undoubtedly to the stories current of constricting serpents. Valerius Maximus (book i. c. 8, s. 19), quoting Livy, gives a relation of the alarm into which the Romans under Regulus were thrown by an enormous snake, which had its lair on the banks of the Bagradas, or Magradas (Mejerda), near Utica. It is said to have swallowed many of the soldiers, to have killed others in its folds, and to have kept the army from the river; till at length, being invulnerable by ordinary weapons, it was destroyed by heavy stones slung from the military engines used in sieges. But, according to the historian, its persecution of the army did not cease with its death; for the waters were polluted with its gore, and the air with the steams from its corrupted carcase, to such a degree, that the Romans were obliged to move their camp, taking with them however the skin, one hundred and twenty feet in length, which was sent to Rome. Gellius, Orosius, Florus, Silius Italicus, and Zonaras, make mention of the same serpent nearly to the same effect. Pliny (viii. 14, De Serpentibus Maximis et Bois) says, that Megasthenes writes that serpents grow to such a size in India, that they swallowed entire stags and bulls. (See also Nearchus, quoted by Arrian. Indic. 15.) He speaks too of the Bagradian serpent above-mentioned as matter of notoriety, observing that it was one hundred and twenty feet long, and that its skin and jaws were preserved in a temple at Rome till the time of the Numantine war: and he adds, that the serpents called Boæ in Italy confirm this, for that they grow to such a size, that in the belly of one killed on the Vatican hill in the reign of Claudius an entire infant was found. Suetonius (in Octav. 43) mentions the exhibition of a serpent, fifty cubits in length, in front of the comitium.lated their jaws and throat: this operation is a very long one. But, without multiplying instances from Ælian and others, we will now come to more modern accounts. Bontius (v. 23) says, 'The Indian serpents are so multitudinous, that my paper would fail me before I enumerated them all; never theless, I must say something about the great ones, which sometimes exceed thirty-six feet in length, and are of such capacity of throat and stomach that they swallow entire boars. He then speaks of the great power of distention in the jaws, adding, To confirm this, there are those alive who partook with General Peter Both of a recently swallowed hog, cut out of the belly of a serpent of this kind. They are not venomous, but they strangle by powerfully applying their folds around the body of a man or other animal.' Mr. M'Leod, in his interesting 'Voyage of H. M. S. Alceste,' p. 312, gives the following account:

་

It may here be mentioned, that during a captivity of some months at Whidah, in the kingdom of Dahomey, on the coast of Africa, the author of this narrative had opportunities of observing snakes more than double the size of this one just described §; but he cannot venture to say whether or not they were of the same species, though he has no doubt of their being of the genus Boa. They killed their prey, however, precisely in a similar manner; and, from their superior bulk, were capable of swallowing animals much larger than goats or sheep. Governor Abson, who had for thirty-seven years resided at Fort William (one of the African Company's settlements there), described some desperate struggles which he had either seen, or had come to his knowledge, between the snakes and wild beasts, as well as the smaller cattle, in which the former were The exquisite beauty of the Idyll can only be equalled by the grandeur of design and execution displayed by Reynolds in his picture.

+ The passage cited by Valerius from Livy must have been in the lost decade (the 2nd). The reader will find however the story recorded in the supplement to Livy (xviii. 15).

Jonston, after quoting this passage, adds, that it is probable that the Boa grows to this size in Calabria, for that Cuccinus, bishop of St. Angelo, writes to Thomasinus, that one which had devoured the flocks and herds was killed, in a field near the town and within his diocese, by a shepherd, and that the mandibles, two palms in length, were to be seen in the church of the Virgin. (Deiparæ de Urseolo,)

Seo Post, p. 23.

The following is Cuvier's definition of a true Boa in modern nomenclature:

The Boa more especially so called, have a spur on each side of the vent, the body compressed, largest in the middle, the tail prehensile, and small scales on the posterior part of the head. Among them are found the largest of serpents. Some of the species attain thirty or forty feet in length, and become capable of swallowing dogs, deer, and even oxen, according to travellers, after having crushed them in their folds, lubricated them with their saliva, and enormously di

A remarkable part of their anatomy is, that their smaller lung is only one half shorter than the other.

Before we enter upon the subdivision of this family, we will examine some of the most remarkable points in the structure and organization of the serpent, admirably adapted to its habits.

On looking at this representation of the skeleton of a boa constrictor, drawn from the beautiful preparation in the British Museum, we first observe the strong close-set teeth, of which there is a double row on each side of the upper jaw, all pointing backwards, and giving the serpent the firmest hold of its struggling victim, which is thus deprived of the power of withdrawing itself when once locked within the deadly jaws. Serpents do not masticate. The prey is swallowed whole; and to assist deglutition, their under jaw consists of two bones easily separable at the symphysis, or point of junction, while the bone similar to the os quadratum in birds, by the intervention of which it is fitted to the cranium, further facilitates the act. The upper jaw moreover is so constructed as to admit of considerable motion.

We next observe the spine, formed for the most extensive mobility, and the multitude of ribs constructed as organs of rapid progression, when joined to the belly scales, or scuta, with which the whole inferior surface of the body may be said to be shod. . When the snake,' writes Sir Everard Home, begins to put itself in motion, the ribs of the opposite sides are drawn apart from each other, and the small cartilages at the end of them are bent upon the upper surfaces of the abdominal scuta, on which the ends of the ribs rest; and, as the ribs move in pairs, the scutum under each pair is carried along with it. This scutum by its posterior edge lays hold of the ground, and becomes a fixed point from whence to set out anew. This motion is beau tifully seen when a snake is climbing over an angle to get upon a flat surface. When the animal is moving, it alters its shape from a circular or oval form to something approaching to a triangle, of which the surface on the ground forms the base. The coluber and boa having large abdominal scuta, which may be considered as hoof's or shoes, are

the best fitted for this kind of progressive motion. (Lectures | to the next muscle, and is inserted into the third rib behind on Comparative Anatomy, vol. i.)

or spurs, he proceeds to his own observations made on Boc
Constrictor, Scytale, and Cenchris. He says, that the spur
or nail on each side of the vent in the boa constrictor and
other species of the genus is a true nail, in the cavity of
which is a little demi-cartilaginous bone, or ungual phalanx,
articulated with another bone much stronger which is con-
cealed under the skin. This second bone of the rudiment
of a foot in the Bow has an external thick condyle, witt
which the ungual phalanx is articulated, as above stated
it presents, besides, a smaller internal apophysis, which
places it in connexion with the other bones of the skeleton.
These bones are the appendages of a tibia or leg bone, the
form and relative position of which will be understood by a
reference to the subjoined cuts, copied from Dr. Mayer's
'Memoir.'

The figure above given represents the tail of a boa constrictor: a, the vent; b, the hook or spur of the left side; c, the subcutaneous muscle; d, ribs and intercostal muscles; transverse muscle of the abdomen; f, bone of the leg enh, adductor muscle of the foot. The arrangement of the veloped in its muscles; g, abductor muscle of the foot; scuta, or shields, of one entire piece under the tail, characteristic of the true boas, will be here observed. In the py

The cut exhibits two vertebra, and portions of two ribs of a so-called boa constrictor, drawn with his usual accurate, fidelity and skill by W. Clift, Esq., from a skeleton sent from the East Indies by the late Sir William Jones, and deposited in the Hunterian Museum. The letters a, a point to the protuberance on the under surface for the attach-thons the shields beneath the tail are ranged in pairs. ment of the constricting muscles, according to Sir Everard Home.

Though the term boa constrictor is used throughout by Sir Everard Home in his lecture, there can be little doubt that the serpent sent from India by Sir William Jones was a python. The small specimen from which the description of the organs employed in progressive motion was taken may have been a boa. But whether boa or python, it would have had the hooks or spurs near the vent, and the bones and muscles belonging to these spurs, which are of no small consequence in the organization of a boa or a python, rudiments of limbs though they be; these appear to have escaped Sir Everard Home's observation, occupied as he was in following out the mechanism of progressive motion.

No one can read of the habits of these reptiles in a state of nature without perceiving the advantage which they gain when, holding on by their tails on a tree, their heads and bodies in ambush, and half floating on some sedgy river, they surprise the thirsty animal that seeks the stream. These hooks help the serpent to maintain a fixed point; they become a fulcrum which gives a double power to his energies. Dr. Mayer detected these rudiments of limbs, and has well explained their anatomy*. He makes boa the first genus of his family of Phænopoda (Ophidians having the rudiments of a foot visible externally), adding the genera Python, Eryx, Tortrix. After adverting to what Merrem, Schneider, Russel, Lacepède. Daudin, Oppel, Cuvier, Oken, and Blainville have said or figured relative to these hooks

Dr. Mayer's paper appeared in the Trans. Soc. Nat. Curios.; and was afterwards translated in the Annales des Sciences for 1826. But Cuvier, whose recond edition of the Règne Animal was published in 1829 does not notice it.

C

3

b....co

2

We here have a representation of the osteology of this rudimentary limb, taken from the same author. Figure 2. represents the left posterior limb of the Boa Scytale, seen anteriorly: a, tibia or leg-bone; b, external bone of the tarsus; c, internal bone of the tarsus; d, bone of the metatarsus with its apophysis; e, nail or hook.

Figure 3 represents the same limb, seen posteriorly.

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, held Doctors Hopkinson and Pancoast have given in the at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge (vol. v. new series, part i.), an interesting account of the visceral anatomy of the Python (Cuvier), described by Daudin as the Boa reticulata. And here it may be as well to remark that the differences between the Bow and the Pythons are so small, that the accounts given of the constricting powers and even of the principal anatomical details of the one, may be taken as illustrative of the same points in the history of the other. We select from the paper above mentioned an account of the respiratory a..d urinary organs, because their structure appears to be peculiarly adapted to the habits of the animal.

'The larynx consists of a single cartilage, having a nar row oblique slit in it, about six lines in length, for the transmission of air; the trachea is one foot eight inches in length, and three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and passes down attached to the ventral face of the oesophagus. It consists of a great number of imperfect cartilaginous rings, interrupted posteriorly, but joined by an elastic substance which keeps their extremities in contact. Each ring is connected to the adjoining one by a membrane also elastic, so that when the trachea is stretched length wise, it will easily regain its former condition. It passes behind the heart, and while there concealed, divides into two bronchiæ, appropriated to the two lungs. The lungs, in a collapsed state, lie much concealed, being covered in part by the liver; but when inflated, are brought into view and cause the liver to be raised up. These organs consist in two distinct vesicles or bags, united above along their middle, but terminating below, each in a separate cul de sac. They differ materially in size, but vary less in this respect than those of snakes in general. The right lung is two feet ten inches long, and about four inches broad, and ex tends down as far as the gall-bladder; opposite the spleens,