232 SNAKES. 



an hour ' in passing them. ' They were of all sizes, from the 

 ordinary green water snake of two feet long, to monsters, 

 genuine " sea serpents," of fourteen to fifteen feet in length.' 

 I replied to both these communications at the time {Land and 

 Water, April 5, 1879), inviting further information, and de- 

 scribing the features by which true water and true sea snakes 

 could be easily distinguished. Nothing further appeared on 

 the subject, and I have little doubt but that, in both cases, 

 the ' shoals of sea snakes ' were land species that had been 

 merely carried out to sea by force of rivers, I have 

 since been more strongly inclined to this opinion on 

 learning from Dr. Stradling that similar transportations 

 of snakes occur through the force of some of the South 

 American rivers. * Do you know the snakes which belong 

 to the River Plate proper } ' he asks me by letter. ' So 

 many are brought down by floods from Paraguay — even 

 the big constrictors — that it is difficult to determine from 

 occasional specimens.' 



I could not, unfortunately, refer to any books that afforded 

 much information on this subject ; for amongst the greatest 

 literary needs experienced by an ophiologist is some com- 

 plete and special work on the South American snakes, 

 corresponding with Giinther's Reptiles of British India, and 

 Y^rtKt's Snakes of Ansiralia. 



Other writers have mentioned the occurrence of boa con- 

 strictors and anacondas far out at sea occasionally, beguiling 

 the unsophisticated into reporting a veritable ' sea serpent * 

 to the Times by the first homeward-bound mail. 



