THE PELAGIC OR SEA SNAKES. 243 



may save his life. ' Hope itself is a powerful stimulant/ 

 adds the learned experimentalist. 



Many other cases are given by Fayrer of bites by 

 sea snakes, some of which yielded to remedies and others 

 were fatal ; but for these the reader is referred to the 

 TJiaiiatophidia, 



Dr. Cantor had previously made many experiments on 

 various dumb creatures in order to ascertain the virulence 

 of the poison of these hitherto unstudied reptiles. He 

 found that a fowl died in violent spasms eight minutes 

 after a bite ; and a second fowl, bitten directly afterwards 

 by the same snake, with its half-exhausted venom, in ten 

 minutes. Fish died in ten minutes ; a tortoise in twenty- 

 eight minutes, from the bite of another species ; and a 

 harmless snake was paralyzed within half an hour. 



Among the fresh-water snakes, Dr. Giinther tells us of one, 

 Hydrimis^ which is semi-pelagic, and which indulges in little 

 excursions down the rivers to exchange greetings with his 

 marine relatives, some of whom, on their part, occasionally 

 go a certain distance up the rivers. Again, among 

 the sea snakes is one who rambles for change of air or 

 diversity of diet over the fields and far away. In him, Dr. 

 Giinther describes one of those many transitions found in 

 every class and order throughout nature. Platnriis is his 

 name ; he has the ventral scales of land snakes to enable 

 him to wander over the salt water marshes which he loves. 

 His nostrils are on the side of his head instead of on the top, 

 and his head shields differ from those of all his relatives. 

 His venom fangs are small, and his tail is not prehensile, 

 presenting the united cb.aracters of fresh and salt water and 



