Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

Mr. N. M. Ward, a gentleman connected with the mission at Pedang, on the coast of Sumatra, has published a well-attested account of a flying serpent, seen by the narrator. He saw the animal fly from a tree at the height of fifty or sixty feet, to another some forty fathom distant. It supports itself in the air by drawing in its belly, widening itself and forming an arch as far as the ribs extend, and forces itself ahead with the rapidity of a bird by sinuous motions, like a serpent swimming.
There is nothing in the reptile which bears any resemblance to a wing. Its length is about four feet, and its bite is dangerous. Another description of flying or darting serpents is described by the natives, whose bite in instant death. It leaps and flies only about half the distance of the others, and makes none of the sinuous waving motions in the air. This discovery, of truth of which there can be no doubt, shows the portion of the Scriptures which speaks of “burning fiery serpents” had a literal fact for the basis of its figurative language, though the species is now extinct in the region spoken of in the bible. What a terrible scourge must be such an animal. Give us the sterility of the frozen, rather than the fertility of the torrid zones, with such drawbacks. Polar bears are more agreeable than flying serpents.-N. Y. paper.