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CHAPTER XIII. 



FRESH- WATER SNAKES. 



THE frequent allusion to water snakes In the preceding 

 chapters seems to render this a suitable place to 

 describe them more In detail ; and among them are of 

 course the sea snakes, and ' The Great Sea Serpent ' must 

 not be omitted. 



In many books on natural history, particularly If her- 

 petology occupy any space, we find the subject wound up 

 with a chapter on 'The Sea Serpent,' forming a sort of 

 apologetic little addendum, as If the creature of question- 

 able existence must claim no space in the heart of the 

 volume, yet is not quite so unimportant as to be omitted 

 altogether. 



On the part of some other authors, a total and summary 

 dismissal of the ' monster ' is apt to exclude with it any 

 reference to the smaller sea snakes, whose actual existence 

 is therefore a fact less knov/n than It should be ; and many 

 persons, seeing the doubt cast upon the celebrated Individual 

 whose reputed reappearance on the prorogation of Parliament 



221 



