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Red Sea, and in that which bathes the coasts of the N.W. and N. of 
New Holland ; at least this is the conclusion I have reached from my 
own observations and from the numerous researches on this subject 
which I have made in the narratives of travellers. The high tem- 
perature of these seas, the calm which they habitually enjoy, and 
the multiplicity of the animals which swim in them and on which 
these snakes feed, appear to me to be the principal reasons for their 
predilection for equatorial seas. 
On opening the stomachs of several animals of this genus, 1 
have found them chiefly filled with small fish and with divers pelagic 
crustaceans, but they, in their turn, become the prey of numerous 
sharks which live in these seas. Several times, in fact, I found 
sea-snakes more or less altered by digestion in the stomachs of these 
scavengers. 
“At first I found it difficult to conceive how such nimble animals 
could become the prey of these large sharks whose movements are 
so clumsy and stupid, but afterwards, from observing more of these 
reptiles, 1 believe jl discovered in one of their habits the cause of 
this phenomenon. Often these snakes may be seen asleep floating 
on the surface of the water; their sleep is then so profound that 
our ship passing sometimes quite near them did not waken them 
by the sound of its movement, nor by the considerable waves it pro- 
duced, nor by the customary cries of the sailors. Doubtless it is 
in this state of lethargy that the clumsy sharks manage to seize 
them; at least it seems to me impossible to imagine any other solu- 
tion. As to the cause of this sleep itself, perhaps it depends, as in 
several terrestrial reptiles, on the species of stupor which, in the 
animals of this family, so frequently accompanies the process of 
digestion. 
“These marine reptiles swim and dive with equal facility; often 
at the very moment when we thought we could seize them with our 
net they disappeared from sight, and diving to great distances below 
the waves, they remained for half-an-hour or more before returning 
to the surface, or only re-appeared at very great distances from the 
point where we had seen them dive. 
“All these curious habits and all these differences of structure, 
uniting to separate the pelagic snakes from those of the land, have 
led me to create a distinct family for them. It will be seen in 
another part of my work what are the more special reasons for this 
division. 
“Whilst the general interest .was still engrossed by so many 
varied objects, a great number of whales were suddenly observed 
advancing towards us with all the rapidity of which these animals 
are capable. On no other occasion did such a spectacle come under 
my observation The multitude of the cetaceans, their enor- 
mous size, their rapid evolutions and their playful frolics all ap- 
peared to me less astonishing than the sight of these powerful colossi 
