FRESH-WATER SNAKES. 231 



cable. Some poisonous ones were caught in the cabin. 

 A green one was there several weeks, hiding in the day- 

 time.' 



Often in newspapers are stories of 'sea snakes' as having 

 appeared quite out of their geographical range. These 

 on investigation may reasonably be traced to land snakes 

 which have been carried out by the tidal rivers. In Land 

 and Water of Jan. 5, 1878, was such a story. Again, March 

 31, the following year, a correspondent, 'J. J. A.,' on 'Animal 

 Life in New Caledonia,' stated that the sea inside the 

 reefs is sometimes covered with both dead and living crea- 

 tures carried out by the violence of the currents after heavy 

 rains. ' The flooded rivers rush with great force from the 

 mountains,' and numbers of reptiles were among the victims 

 of that force. He saw 'incredible numbers of snakes,' and 

 described the common sea snakes as ' stupid, fearless things, 

 that will not get out of your way. . . . The small sand- 

 islands are literally alive with them.' The writer made no 

 pretensions to be a naturalist, or to state confidently what 

 the snakes were specifically. New Caledonia would seem 

 to be rather beyond the range of sea snakes proper, and 

 those ' incredible numbers ' may have been only land snakes 

 involuntarily taking a sea bath, or certain species frequenting 

 brackish waters, like those in South Carolina described 

 by Lawson. 



About the same time an American newspaper contained 

 an account given by Captain O. A. Pitfield, of the steam- 

 ship Mexico, who stated that he had 'passed through a 

 tangled mass of snakes ' off the Tortuga islands, at the 

 entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The ship was ' more than 



