178 



Sea^Serpents 



acquainted with our larger sea mammals and other 

 fauna not usually seen. 



Are there then no Sea-serpents ? Certainly there 

 are, very many, and exceedingly dangerous ophidians 

 they are, being highly poisonous. The largest of them 

 is almost as thick as a man's leg, and from eight to 

 ten feet long. They abound on the Indian coasts, 

 and in the Eastern Archipelago I have often seen them 

 pursuing their devious way along the calm surface. 

 They all have a flattened end to their tail, instead of 

 its coming to a point, as does that of all the land snakes. 

 I have heard, on good authority, they are responsible 

 for the deaths O-' many Lascars in the country vessels 

 of India, climbing up the coir hawsers with which 

 the vessels are anchored, through the hawse-pipes 

 and biting the sleeping men. 



But these are not the Sea-serpents whose character- 

 istics, as seen by latter-day chroniclers, all bear the 

 stamp of Olaus Magnus or Pontoppidan. The 

 enormous length, serpentine shape, mane of hair, 

 side paddles, etc., all bespeak a common origin. Now 

 it would ill become any one, least of aU those knowing 

 something of the fearsome creatures that have of late 

 years been found to inhabit the great depths of the sea, 

 to say that we shall never find or see any terrific mon- 

 ster upheaved from the ocean floor. Only, if such there 

 be, it will not be a serpent, or a mammal such as 

 Professor Oudemans believes in, a sort of Zeuglodon 

 two hundred and fifty feet long. Because these 

 creatures are essentially of the surface, they cannot 

 even descend to any great depth, in consequence, 

 first, of the increasing pressure upon their bodies, 

 and next, of their need of air breathed direct from 

 the atmosphere. 



I firmly believe myself that cuttle-fish lurk in the 



