Many species of serpents, some of them of the most dangerous kind, are natives of South Carolina. Among these are, the rattle-snake, water rattle-sLake, small rattle-snake, water viper, copper belly snake, bluish green snake, hog nose snake, wampum snake, horn snake, thunder snake, black snake, little brown head snake, ribbon snake, chain snake, mogason water snake, coach whip snake, corn snake, green snake, glass snake, bull snake.
The rivers and coasts of Carolina teem with many va rieties of fish, some of them of the most delicate kinds. In the fresh water are found, sturgeon, pikes, trout, bream, roach or sik.el fish, pearch, sucking fish or carp, herring, cat-fish, garfish, rock fish, ecl ; and of shell fish, the soft shelled turtle, terrepin, and cray fish. In the sea which washes the coasts, are shark, porpus, drum, bass, sailor's choice, shad, sheep-hcad, crocus, whiting, porgy, black fish, soles, angelfish, mullet, herring, skipjack, yellow tail, alewife. The shell fish found in the salt water, arc sonic kinds of large and small sea turtle, oysters, crabs, shrimps, clams and mus cles.
There is a frequent multiplication of fish ill particular circumstances, which looms a remarkable peculiarity in the natural history or South Carolina. In every planta tion, great care is taken in making drains to preserve water lin• ovei flowing the rice fields in summer. Soon alter these ponds are made, they swarm with various species of fish. Various theories have been devised, to explain in what manner they and whence they come. Some suppose, that their spawn is exhaled front the large lakes of fresh water on the continent, awl tieing borne along in thunder clouds, fills with the drops of rain into these reservoirs of w aver. Others ate of ()pinion, that the spawn has t emained mingled every where with the sand, since these rnarith»e parts of the continent were relinquished by the sea. While others imagine, that ) ming lisp are brought by water low Is from one pond to anouler, by which means the new made pools receive a plentiful supply. Of these theories, we are inclined to give the preference to the third ; for we do not believe, that the specific lei it)' of spawn is such as to admit of its being raised in vapour to the clouds ; nor can we easily bring ourselves to think, that it could remain for ages in the sand, without being destroyed by putrefac tion. None of the-se theories, indeed, appears to us at all satisfactory ; but as the fact is notorious all over the country, its solution is worthy or the attention of na turalists.
By the degree and duration of its sum MCP heat, South Carolina is allied to countries Within the torrid •one ; With those within the temper ate latitudes, it is still inure intimately- connected by its winter's cold, and its general variableness. In tropical countries, the extremes of heat
and cold are not removed from each other farther than by sixteen degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, so that there is but little distinction in point of temperature be tween their winter and summer. In South Carolina, there has sometimes been a difference of 83 degrees between the temperatures of different days in the same y( ar, and the temperature Isas even varied .16 degrees in the course of one day. From 1791 to 1808, the differ ence between the coolest and warmest summers ranged from 88' to 93°, and the difference between the mildest and coldest winters, on a few particular days, from 50' to 17". In Charleston and the low country, the degree of heat is consideralrly mole moderate than in the interior parts or the state. At Columbia, in the summer of 1808. the mercury iu the thermometer frequently ruse to 96°. and sometimes to Mille at Charleston it did not ex , eed 91°. The number of extreme warm clay s in Charieston is seldom above thirty in a year, and three of such days scarcely follow one another in succession. On av (law., there are about thirty sultry nights in the low country in the course of the year, when the heat and closeness of the air is such, as to prevent the enjoyment of sound sleep; but this severe heat is in general soon follow ed by cooling showers. OF piercing cold days, there are in general a greater proportion in winter, than there is in summer of those which are exceedingly hot ; out of these, as of the severely warm days, more than three seldom come together. Within the last fifty years, the transitions from cold to heat have occasionally been so ;,neat and rapid, that the tnermometer has been ob served to fall more than fifty degrees in less than fifteen hours. The hottest day in the year IS sometimes as early as June, sometimes as late as September, but most frequently in July or August. A stranger going to Ca rolina, should mud)• to arrii e there either in November or December ; he should be particularly cautious not to make his first appearance there ill summer, or in the first months of autumn. September. when the 11( at be gins to abate, is more sh kly titan the pre«ling months, and the heat In comes then more oppressive. rspira tion is diminished ;old frequently interrupted, and the s•s tem, relaxed and debilitated by the relentless ler% in y of July awl August, feels more sensibly and frequently an , ov erpowering lassitude. ( oolness of the evenings, and the heavy dews that then fall, multiply the chances of getting cold, so that it is upon the w hole the most unpleasant, as well as the most dangerous, month in the year.