Washington) from the north. On the left bank it receives among others the Blackfoot, Port Neuf, Bannack, Raft, Goose, Salmon, and Bruneau, in Idaho; the Owyhee, Malheur, Burnt, and Powder, in Oregon; and the Grande Ronde, just within Washington territory. SNAKEROOT, a common name, usually with a prefix, for several plants which are botanically very distinct, applied to them because they were supposed, especially by the Indians, to be efficacious against the poisonous bites of serpents. 1. Seneca snakeroot (officinal as senega) is polygala senega. The genus polygala (Greek Tolus, much, and yáλa, milk, as some species were formerly supposed to increase the secretion of milk) has about 200 species, widely distributed, about 25 of which belong to this country, and a few showy exotics are grown as greenhouse plants. The flowers have the general appearance of those of the leguminosa, but their structure is quite different and is dif t Seneca Snakeroot (Polygala Senega). Part of Root of natural size. ficult to describe; two of the five sepals are colored and petal-like, while the three proper petals are united, the middle one keeled-shaped and often bearing a crest; the six or eight stamens are united by their filaments in two sets, the anthers one-celled and opening by a hole at the top; pod small and two-seeded. Polygala polygama and P. pauciflora, both pretty native species, produce, besides ordinary flowers, numerous fertile flowers on short underground runners. P. senega, the thick, hard, and knotted rootstocks of which are the seneca snakeroot of the shops, is found from New England southward and westward; the stems are about a foot high; leaves lanceolate, and the white flowers in close terminal spikes. The dried root has a peculiar odor and an acrid taste when chewed; it contains a principle called senegine, probably the same that has been called polygalic acid, and closely allied to saponine. The drug was first introduced into Europe as the Seneca rattlesnake root about 1734, and in 1749 Linnæus wrote a dissertation upon the drug. It is a stimulant expectorant, and in large doses emetic and diaphoretic; it is chiefly used in the compound sirup of squills, or hive sirup. 2. Virginia snakeroot, as found in the shops, is the root of aristolochia serpentaria and its varieties. The genus aristolochia is apetalous, and comprises low herbs and climbing vines; the tubular calyx is often curiously bent and inflated, and in some of the hothouse exotic species presents some of the strangest forms to be found among flowers. The best known species is A. sipho, which, under the name of Dutchman's pipe (from the shape of the flowers), is often cultivated as a vine for verandas. The medicinal species has a weak stem about a foot high, usually heartshaped leaves, and a few inconspicuous flowers close to the root, the calyx tube being curved like the letter S. It is most abundant in the middle states and southward, but like most medicinal plants has become rare in the older states. The dried root, when bruised, has a marked odor and taste, which have been compared to camphor, valerian, and turpentine combined; it contains an essential oil and a resin. Virginia snakeroot had a high reputation with the Indians as a cure for snake bites, and was early introduced into England as a remedy for the bite of reptiles and rabid dogs, and was officinal in the London Pharmacopoœia of 1650. It is now used only as a stimulant tonic and diaphoretic, and has been employed in the treatment of intermittent fevers. 3. Canada snakeroot, also called wild and Indian ginger, is asarum Canadense. The genus asarum, with the preceding one, belongs to the family of aristolochiacea, and consists of low stemless herbs, from the creeping rootstocks of which rise usually one or two heart-shaped leaves on long petioles, and a short-peduncled flower, which appears in early spring; the regular calyx has three equal lobes, brownish purple, enclosing 12 stamens and the large pistils. A. Canadense has broadly heart-kidneyshaped deciduous leaves, in pairs, with the flower between them. The dried rootstock is in contorted pieces about the size of a quill, with an odor and a taste somewhat between Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochis serpentaria). those of ginger and cardamoms; it contains an essential oil; it is an aromatic stimulant, and is sometimes used to modify the action of other medicines; in domestic practice a tincture is used in colic, and in some parts of the country it is made to serve the purpose of ginger in cookery; it is one of the things chewed to conceal a bad breath. Two evergreen species are found from Virginia southward: A. Virginicum, with small round-heart-shaped, and A. arifolium, with large halberd-shaped leaves; both possess similar aromatic rootstocks, and the leaves of all three, when dried, powdered, and used as snuff, are said to have similar properties with the foreign A. Europæum, or asurabacca, in producing sneezing and a copious flow of mucus from the nose.-Black snakeroot is sanicula Canadensis and S. Marilandica. Button snakeroot is eryngium yuccafolium; the same name is also given to some Canada Snakeroot (Asarum Canadense). species of liatris. White snakeroot is eupatorium ageratoides. Snakehead is chelone glabra. SNAKES, a family of American Indians. See SHOSHONES. SNAPPING TURTLE (chelydra serpentina, Schweig.; genus chelonura, Fleming), an American species of fresh-water chelonians, characterized by a large head, with both jaws strongly hooked and two barbels under the chin, short and pointed snout, the nostrils near together, and the eyes large, prominent, and far forward; the sternum is small, cruciform, immovable, and covered with twelve plates and three supplemental ones; the carapace oblong, depressed, more or less tricarinated, deeply notched behind with three points on each side of the central notch; the neck long and thick, with a warty skin; tail very long, surmounted by a scaly or tuberculated crest; the anterior limbs with five nails, the posterior with four; the skin of the limbs above and below scaly. The head may be in Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). and the lower parts yellowish; it attains a length of more than 4 ft. and a weight of 50 lbs.; it prefers sluggish and deep water in ponds or rivers, keeping principally at the bottom; it is very voracious, and feeds on fish, reptiles, and such aquatic birds as come within its reach, especially young ducks and goslings and wounded birds; it has been known to attack man, and is not unfrequently caught with hooks; its flesh is much esteemed for soups, though in the old animals it has a musky odor. It goes far from water to deposit its eggs; though an excellent swimmer, it is awkward on land, walking slowly, with the head, neck, and tail extended, raised on the legs like an alligator, whence it is called by the negroes alligator cooter; it is very savage if attacked, raising itself with such quickness on its legs as to elevate the whole body from the ground and enable it to make considerable hops, snapping with great ferocity and quickness at any object coming within reach of its long neck; its bite is severe and tenacious. It is distributed from Maine to Georgia, and westward to the Mississippi, being replaced further west by the C. Temminckii (Troost; genus gypochelys, Ag.), characterized by a larger triangular head, rougher shell, and neck and limbs covered with spiny warts. In the northern states it lays its eggs, 20 to 40, between June 10 and 25, generally in the forenoon, and in captivity a month later; it excavates a hole at first directly down and then laterally, so that the widest part, where the nest is, is on one side; sometimes several holes are dug, before one is found to suit; the females lose their shyness at this time, and smooth the earth over with care after the eggs are deposited.-In some parts of the country, the soft-shelled turtles (trionycida) are called snapping turtles. The eggs in these species are nearly globular, about an inch in diameter, white, and with hard shells. SNEEZING, a modification of the ordinary respiratory movements, accompanied by a violent expiratory effort, sending forth a blast of air from the lungs intended to expel some irritating substance from the nasal air passages. It differs from coughing in the communication between the larynx and mouth being partly or wholly cut off by the drawing together of the sides of the soft palate over the back of the tongue, so that the blast of air, by a convulsive movement, passes through the nose with more or less noise instead of through the mouth. It may be excited by acrid vapors, irritating liquids or solids, diseased secretions, or the simple entrance of air when the Schneiderian membrane is peculiarly irritable. SNELL, Willebrord, a Dutch mathematician, born in Leyden in 1591, died there, Oct. 31, 1626. He studied law, but devoted himself principally to mathematics. When 17 years old he published an essay in which he endeavored to restore a lost treatise of Apollonius. He travelled in Germany, and won the friendship and esteem of Kepler. In 1613 he succeeded his father as professor in the university of Leyden. He was the first to make a trigonometrical measurement of an arc of a meridian, and thence to calculate the size of the earth. His result was erroneous, on account of the imperfection of the instruments then in use; but he himself discovered the errors. He also discovered the law of the refraction of light (see LIGHT, vol. x., p. 438), and improved the methods of approximating to the ratio of the radius to the circumference of the circle. His most important work is Eratosthenes Batavus, sive de Terra Ambitus vera Quantitate (Leyden, 1617). SNELLING, Josiah, an American soldier, born in Boston in 1782, died in Washington, D. C., Aug. 20, 1828. He was appointed a lieutenant in the 4th infantry in 1808, became captain in 1809, distinguished himself in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and was made brevet major for services at the battle of Brownstown, Aug. 9, 1812. In 1814 he was made inspector general with the rank of colonel, and was prominent in the affair of Lyon's creek. In 1819 he was made colonel of the 5th infantry. He was a witness against Hull at his trial, and wrote "Remarks on General William Hull's Memoirs of the Campaign of the Northwestern Army, 1812" (8vo, Detroit, 1825). SNETHEN, Nicholas, an American clergyman, born at Fresh Pond (now Glen Cove), Long Island, N. Y., Nov. 15, 1769, died in Princeton, Ind., May 30, 1845. In 1794 he entered the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, travelled and preached for four years in Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine, labored at Charleston, S. C., for a year or more, and thence was ordered to Baltimore, where he attended the general conference in May, 1800, and took a prominent part in favor of limiting the episcopal prerogative, a delegated general conference (his plan for which was finally adopted in 1808), and a preachers' anti-slavery tract society, and against the future admission of any slaveholder into the church. He afterward travelled with Bishop Asbury as his private secretary. In 1804-'6 he was stationed in New York, whence he removed to his farm on Longanore, Frederick co., Md. By his marriage he became the holder of slaves, whom | he emancipated as soon as the law would permit (1820). From 1809 to 1814 he was again an itinerant, and was stationed successively in Baltimore, Georgetown, Alexandria, and on the circuit of his farm residence. While in Georgetown he was elected chaplain to congress. In 1829 he removed to Indiana. He was the first to introduce camp meetings into Maryland and New York. In 1821 he began to write in favor of lay representation. The refusal of this right by the general conference in 1828, and the expulsion from the church of many of its advocates, led to the formation of the Methodist Protestant church, in which Mr. Snethen bore a prominent part, and in connection with which he continued to travel and preach after his removal to the west till a short time before his death. He published "Lectures on Preaching the Gospel" (1822), Essays on Lay Representation" (1835), and "Lectures on Biblical Subjects" (1836). A volume of his sermons, edited by Worthington G. Snethen, was published in 1846. SNEYDERS. See SNYDERS. SNIPE, a group of wading birds, of the subfamily scolopacina. It is characterized by a long, straight, slender bill, obtuse and flexible, covered with a soft, sensitive skin, abundantly supplied with nerves toward the end; the upper mandible the longest, somewhat bent down at the end, and grooved on the sides, in which the nostrils are placed; the tongue long, slender, and pointed at the end, the œsophagus narrow, and the stomach very muscular; eyes far back in the head; wings moderate and pointed; tail short and rounded; legs short, feathered lower down than in most waders; hind toe small, elevated, but reaching the ground, the anterior long and slender, and free except in the genus macroramphus. Snipes are migratory and small, going north to breed; they frequent marshy places and the margins of rivers and ponds, where they probe the soft mud perpendicularly with the bill in search of worms, insects, and larvæ; the nest is a slight hollow on the ground, lined with grass and sedge, and the eggs, usually four, are placed with the pointed end inward; the young are able to leave the nest as soon as hatched; the flesh is considered a great delicacy. subfamily includes the genera macroramphus (Leach), gallinago (Leach), rhynchæa (Cuv.), scolopax (Linn.), and philohela (Gray), of which the last two will be noticed under WoODcoсK.-In macroramphus the wings are long and pointed, with the first and second quills equal; the tarsi are longer than the middle toe, which is united to the base of the outer by a short web. The species are found in Europe and North America, occurring in large flocks near the sea, feeding on small mollusks, worms, and insects; they fly rapidly and irregularly with a quivering whistle. The gray or redbreasted snipe (M. griseus, Leach) is about 10 in. long and 18 in. in alar extent, the bill 24 in.. and weighs 31 oz.; the prevailing colors above The are dark ashy, pale reddish, and black, with | temperate North America, going in summer as rump and upper tail coverts white; under far as Nova Scotia, where it breeds in June in parts pale ferruginous, with spots and bands the elevated moss-covered marshes; the eggs of brownish black; the quills brownish black, are yellowish olive, spotted with brown; they return to the south in October, and are very fond of the rice fields; they rarely visit the seashore, and never the interior of woods; the cry resembles the syllables "wau-aik." They are fond of leeches and other food not generally coveted by man, though most epicures, ignorant of this, are in the habit of cooking and eating them, contents of intestines included. The great or double snipe of Europe (G. major, Steph.) is 11 or 12 in. long, varied with black and bright reddish above, the red arranged longitudinally, and whitish red below; the shaft of the first quill is whitish; it inhabits N. Europe. The common snipe of Europe (G. media, Steph.) is 10 or 11 in. long, with two blackish longitudinal bands on the head, the neck spotted with brown and fawn color, the mantle blackish with two longitudinal fawncolored bands, the wings brown waved with gray, quill shafts brown, and lower parts white waved with blackish on the flanks; it flies very high, with a shrill cry; from its wavering flight it is generally difficult to shoot; its flesh is delicious. In rhynchaa the bill is shorter and more curved, the first three quills equal and longest, the tertials as long as the quills, and the tail very short; the species are adorned with bright yellow ocellated spots on the quills and tail; they occur at the Cape of Good Hope, in the East Indies, and Australia. The Cape snipe (R. Capensis, Cuv.) is 10 in. long, variegated with black and cinereous; around the eye, a little way down the neck, pectoral band, and abdomen, white. NAM Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago Wilsonii). the shaft of the first primary white; the young are dull white below, marked with ashy; the plumage is more gray in winter, and more red in summer. It occurs over temperate North America, in large flocks, occasionally going inland in autumn on the return from the north, where it goes to breed; the flight is rapid and strong, accompanied by a single mellow "weet;" the call note is a whistle; the flesh is not so good as that of the common American snipe.-In gallinago the tarsus is shorter than the middle toe, and there is no web. The American or Wilson's snipe (G. Wilsonii, Bonap.) is about 10 in. long, with an alar extent of 17 in., the bill 24 in., and weighs 3 oz.; above the feathers are brownish black, spotted and edged with yellowish brown or ashy white; a black line from base of bill over top of head; Common European Snipe (Gallinago media). throat and neck before reddish ashy, under parts white, quills and tail like back, the latter widely tipped with bright rufous, with a narrow subterminal black band. It occurs over SNOHOMISH, a N. W. county of Washington territory, bordering W. on Puget sound and E. on the Cascade mountains, and drained by several streams; area, 1,500 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 599. Extensive forests skirt the streams, and lumber is the chief source of wealth. Coal is found in various places. Along the sound are extensive cranberry marshes, and in the interior large tracts adapted to agriculture. The chief productions in 1870 were 1,290 bushels of oats, 1,415 of barley, 11,680 of potatoes, and 857 tons of hay. The value of live stock was $25,305. Capital, Snohomish City. SNORRI STURLASON, or Snorre Sturluson, an Icelandic historian, born on the shores of Hvammsfiord, a bay on the W. coast of Iceland, in 1178, murdered at Reykholt, Sept. 22, 1241. He was of distinguished family, was carefully educated, and became proficient in Greek and Latin. Though originally poor, he became by marriage the wealthiest man in Iceland; and his legal attainments, bravery, and eloquence obtained for him the highest positions in the field and in the althing or legislature. His residence was a fortified stronghold, and he appeared in the national assembly with a retinue of hundreds of armed followers. Traces of his sumptuous abode at Reyk FIG. 1. | por; the surplus vapor is precipitated from its invisible state in minute crystals, the primary form of which is that of a rhomboid having angles of 60° and 120°. (See CRYSTALLOGRAPHY.) By far the larger part of FIG. 2. FIG. 8. FIG. 4. FIG. 5. snow falls during the night, and in many localities the maximum fall is between 1 and 7 A. M., which suggests that the cooling necessary to the production of snow is mainly due to radiation; a secondary maximum between 8 and 10 A. M. is explicable as due to the influence of the dynamic cooling of rising currents. The complexity of the forms of snow holt still exhibit stone structures of finished | vary with the density of the air and the vaelegance for hot baths, supplied from boiling springs through an aqueduct of hewn stone 500 ft. in length. On being elected to the chief magistracy, he gave proof of great judicial learning. In 1213 he produced an ode to a Norwegian warrior, which was requited by liberal presents. This poem was followed by others, one of them composed in honor of the king of Norway, Haco V. On a visit to Norway he was made an honorary marshal of the court, and upon reembarking for Iceland was loaded with rich presents. Faction and disorder prevailed throughout Iceland, and the king of Norway seized the moment to advance his designs for the subjugation of the island. Snorri became involved in domestic feuds, and in 1237 appeared in Norway as a fugitive. The king created him a jarl, but soon became hostile to him, and Snorri returned to Iceland. Emissaries were employed to seize him and send him in irons to Norway, but he was murdered at Reykholt by his son-in-law, Gissur. His most important work is the Heimskringla, or "Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings." It is probable that in this work he made large use of the writings of Ari Frode, fragments of whose Scandinavian histories, composed a century earlier, still remain. The Younger Edda also bears the name of Snorri Sturlason alone, but it was gradually formed by the successive additions of several writers. The first copy of it was found by Arngrim Jonsson in 1628. The original Icelandic text of the Heimskringla was first printed by Peringskiold in 1697, though a Danish translation was current 100 years before. The last edition is by Schöning and others, in Icelandic, Danish, and Latin (6 vols., Copenhagen, 1777-1826). There is an English translation, "The Heimskringla, or Chronicle of the Kings of Norway," by Samuel Laing (3 vols., London, 1844). FIG. 8. FIG. 6. SNOW, the flocculent white masses of crystals in which the aqueous vapor of the atmosphere at low temperatures is precipitated from the . clouds. The other forms in which atmospheric vapor appears are treated of under DEw, FROST, HAIL, and RAIN. The primary condition necessary to the formation of snow is the saturation of the air at a freezing temperature with vapor; the exact limits of temperature are not known, but probably FIG. 7. flakes increases with the quantity of moisture in the air, and probably with the variety of alternations of temperature to which they are exposed. Their size increases with the temperature and humidity; thus they are much larger from 9 to 11 A. M. than before sunrise. Little however is satisfactorily known on these points. More than 1,000 forms of snow crystals have been observed and figured |