BLACK AND YELLOW SEA SNAKE. 



159 



Black and Yellow Sea Snake. 



{Hydrus platurus.) 



The only species of Sea Snake which inhabits the ocean about 

 the coasts of South Africa is the Black and Yellow species. It is 

 often seen in the shallow pools amongst the rocks on the sea- 

 shore, left stranded there by the out-going tide. It is very 

 necessary that the general pubhc should become acquainted with 

 the appearance of this snake, as many fatahties have occurred 



Fig. 67. — The Black and Yellow Sea Snake (Hydrus platurus) which lives in the ocean, and is 

 often left stranded in the rock pools along the South African Coast. It is highly venomous. 

 {Royal Natural History.) 



by people mistaking it for an eel and catching hold of it. A 

 naval officer was thus bitten recently, and lost his life. He died 

 four hours after the bite. Another instance is recorded of a sailor 

 being bitten and dying in two and a half hours after. A coloured 

 man once brought me one in a tin containing sea water. He 

 said he had caught it in a small pool on the beach. He foolishly 

 puhed it out of the tin, remarldng what a fine eel it was. Before 



