THE LIVING WORLD. 
T 75 
MONSTER SERPENTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
A greater variety of forms exists among reptiles than is found among 
warm-blooded creatures and it is in the production of these forms that nature 
seems to have imagined shapes of the most weirdly fantastic description, and 
modifying in every possible manner the general plan which she has prescribed 
to herself in the mammalia class of animals. To these hideous forms is added 
a deadly venom which has served to render all serpents detestable in the eye 
of man, whose hand is ever raised against them, as the Creator decreed after the 
fall of Adam and Eve. 
Though snakes are found inhabiting nearly all regions of the earth, like 
others of the reptile family they are most numerous, venomous and formidable 
in the tropics, and in places where, from the exuberance of vegetation, man 
has been able to make the least progress. For this reason we may not reject 
as entirely improbable the stories that have come down to us from the ancients 
of the ravages committed by monster serpents that roamed the solitudes of the 
world before man had become equipped with effective weapons with which to 
oppose them. 
The finding of fossil remains of gigantic saurians, such as have been de¬ 
scribed, gives us good reason for supposing that at one time there existed ser¬ 
pents of equally surprising proportions, and indeed the analogy which exists 
between all creatures of the reptilian order lead irresistibly to this conclusion, 
oven though their fossilized remains hare not as yet been discovered. The 
nature of the forests which once clothed the earth, and the other animal life 
that revelled therein make it extremely probable that serpents grew to lengths 
of one hundred feet or more, in which event it would be most difficult for man, 
with the rude and insufficient weapons with which he was armed, to destroy 
them. To such enormous and powerful creatures the lion, tiger, or even ele¬ 
phant itself, would be but a feeble opponent. As Goldsmith observes: 
“ The dreadful monster spread desolation round him; every creature that 
had life was devoured, or fled to a distance. That horrible fcetor [odor], which 
even the commonest and the most harmless snakes are . still found to diffuse, 
might, in these larger ones, become too powerful for any living being to with¬ 
stand; and while they preyed without distinction, they might thus also have 
poisoned the atmosphere around them. In this manner, having for ages lived 
in the hidden and unpeopled forest, and finding as their appetites were more 
powerful, the quantity of their prey decreasing, it is possible they might ven¬ 
ture boldly from their retreats, into the more cultivated parts of the country, 
and carry consternation among mankind, as they had before desolation among 
the lower ranks of nature.” 
Indeed, we have many histories of antiquity presenting us such a picture, 
and exhibiting a whole nation sinking under the ravages of a single serpent. 
At that time, man had not learned the art of uniting the efforts of many to 
effect one great purpose. Opposing multitudes only added new victims to the 
general calamity, and increased mutual embarrassment and terror. The animal 
was, therefore, to be singly opposed by him who had the greatest strength the 
best armor, and the most undaunted courage. In such an encounter hundreds 
must have fallen; till one, more lucky than the rest by a fortunate blow, or 
by taking the monster in its torpid interval, and surcharged with spoil, might 
kill and thus rid his country of the destroyer, as Hercules is represented to 
