Note 63 — Chapter XII

Since this was in type, I find that not even a porcupine is safe from a hungry snake. In vol. xliii. of the Philosophical Transactions (1744), p. 271, is a letter from a gentleman in India, who states that on an island near Bombay a dead snake was found with the quills of a porcupine ‘sticking out of its Belly.’ The snake had ‘sucked it in Head foremost, while the Quills were flatted down. Afterwards they rose and ran through the Snake’s Belly, and so killed it.’ The pressure of the jaws had ‘flatted’ the quills, but not killed the animal, which, when in its expansile tomb, had, though vainly, erected its natural armour.