Chap. IX.] 



SEA-SNAKES. 



309 



Sea-snakes (Hydrophis) are found on all the coasts 

 of Ceylon. I have sailed through large shoals of them 

 in the Ghilf of Manaar, close to the pearl-banks of 

 Aripo. The fishermen of Calpentyn on the west live 

 in perpetual dread of them, and believe their bite to 

 be fatal. In the course of an attempt which was re- 

 cently made to place a lighthouse on the great rocks of 

 the south-east coast, known by seamen as the Basses \ or 

 Baxos, the workmen who first landed found the portion 

 of the surface liable to be covered by the tides, honey- 

 combed, and hollowed into deep holes filled with water, 

 in which were abundance of fishes and some molluscs. 

 Some of these cavities also contained sea-snakes from 

 four to five feet long, which were described as having 

 the head " hooded like the cobra de capello, and of a 

 light grey colour, slightly speckled. They coiled them- 

 selves like serpents on land, and darted at poles thrust 

 in among them. The Singhalese who accompanied the 

 party, said that they not only bit venomously, but 

 crushed the limb of any intruder in their coils." 2 



Still, sea-snakes, though well-known to the natives, 

 are not abundant round Ceylon, as compared with their 

 numbers in other places. Their principal habitat is 

 the ocean between the southern shores of China and 

 the northern coast of New Holland ; and their western 

 limit appears to be about the longitude of Cape Comorin. 

 It has long since been ascertained that they frequent 

 the seas that separate the islands of the Pacific ; but 

 they have never yet been found in the Atlantic, nor even 



1 The Basses are believed to be 

 the remnants of the great island of 

 Griri, swallowed up by the sea. — 

 Mahawanso, ch. i. p. 4. They may 



possibly be the Basses of Ptolemy's 

 map of Taprobane. 



2 Official Report to the Governor 

 of Ceylon. 



x 3 



