.a point, but the body, which looks to be as big as two hogsheads, 
grows remarkably small at once just where the tail begins. The 
head in all the kinds has a high and broad forehead, but in some 
a pointed snout, though in others that is flat, like that of a cow or 
horse, With large nostrils, and several stiff hairs standing out on 
each side like whiskers. They add that the eyes of this creature 
are very large, of a blue colour, and look like a couple of bright 
pewter plates. The whole animal is of a dark brown colour, 
but it is speckled and variegated with light streaks or spots, that 
shine like tortoise shell. It is of a darker hue about the eyes and 
mouth than elsewhere, and appears in that part a .good deal like 
those horses, which we call Moors heads.—Those on our coast 
differ from the Greenland sea snakes, with regard to the skin, 
which is as smooth as glass, and has not the least wrinkle but 
about the neck, where there is a kind of mane, which looks like 
a parcel of sea weeds hanging down to the water. Some say it 
sheds its skin like the land snake. It seems the wind is so des¬ 
tructive to this creature, that, as has been observed before, it is 
never seen on the surface of the water, but in the greatest calm, 
and the least gust of wind drives it immediately to the bottom 
again. These creatures shoot through the water like an arrow 
out of a bow, seeking constantly the coldest places. I have been 
informed by some of our seafaring men that a cable would not 
be long enough to measure the length of some of them, when 
they are observed on the surface of the water in an even line. 
They say those round lumps or folds sometimes lie one after an¬ 
other as far as a man can see.” 
tc jf an y one inquires how many folds may be counted in a 
Sea Snake, the answer is, that the number is not always the same, 
but depends upon the various sizes of them ; Jive and twenty is 
the greatest number I find well attested. Adam Olearius in his 
Gottorf Musseum, p. 17. writes of it thus : “A person of dis¬ 
tinction from Sweden related here at Gottorf, that he had heard 
the Burgomaster of Malmoe, a very worthy man, say, that as 
he was once standing on the top of a high hill towards the North 
Sea, he saw in the water, which was very calm, a Snake, which 
