The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1901-11-09
HE LEADER MERIT
VENoMoUs SEA SNAKES.
Instances of Death Resulting from
Their Bites-ExDerience Of
the Writer.

These snakes must not be confound-
sea cells, which, though exceedingly
savage and armed with strong needle
pointed teeth, are all nonvenomous,
|. though their bites produce high in
flammation, if not al. once properly at
tended to and cleaned by an antiseptio,
The sea. snake is true snake in many
respects, having either Illuminated
scales, or thick corduroyed skin re-
sembling rudimentary scales, the head
is fat, and the general structure of the
body similar to that of the land snake.
A writer in the Leisure Hour says:
"Whether any Of them possess the
true poison glands and fangs I do not
know, for although have killed many
hundreds of them, / never took suffi-
cient interest to make a careful ex-
animation, and / was told by Dutch
medical gentleman, long resident on
the coast of Dutch New Guinea, and
who had made much investigation on
the subject, that he had failed to dis
cover any poison sacs or glands in any
one of the many snakes he had cap
tured. Yet in some instances he found
what at first appeared to be the two
long front teeth common to yenomous
land snakes, but on detailed examina-
tions these always proved to be per-
fectly solid; nevertheless, a bite from
one of these sea serpents was general
ly regarded by the natives as fatal.
In my own experience ] know of
two such cases, one at the Island of
Fortuna, in the South Pacific, and the
other in Torres straits. In Sigavi har-
Dor, on Fortuna, there is a rock to
which vessels occasionally make fast
their stern moorings. In the boat
which | sent away with a line to this
rock were several boys, natives of the
island, who went with the crew for
amusement. One of them, aged about
ten, jumped out of the boat, and in his
hurry fell on his hands and knees right
on the top of a large black and white
banded sea snake, which at once bit
him savagely on the wrist, causing the
blood TO flow from a score of tiny pune
lures. The boy at once swan on shore
to be treated by native in the even
ing heard that he was suffering great
agopy; in the morning the poor little
fellow was dead. The second instance
was near Raine island, in Torres
straits. A stalwart young Kanaka,
one of the Grey of pearling 1ugger,
was diving for clam shells on the reef,
when a snake about three feet in
length suddenly shot up from below
within a foot of his face. In his anger
and disgust he unthinkingly struck it
with his hand and was quickly bitten
on the forefnger. A few hours later
he was in high fever, accompanied
with twitching of the extremities;
then tetanus ensued, followed by
death in 4S hours.
Although these sea snakes are com |
mon to most tropical seas, they are |
most frequent about the Great Bar
rier reef of Australia. On any smooth |
day they may be seen disporting them
selves on the surface of the water, or, |
rising suddenly from the depths, erect |
their heads and some inches of their |
bodies clear from the water, gaze at |
the passing vessel, and then swiftly |
disappear. In nearly all the Pacific |
islands the natives hold them in de-
hesitation and horror, and when one is
seen lying coiled up on rock summing |
itself or crawling over the surface of
the reef in search of food, a stone, ac-
companied by curse, is always hurled
at it. In the Ellice group, when catch
ing flying fish at night, one Tor more)
of these horrid serpents is sometimes
swept up in the scoop net before it can
be avoided. They range from six
inches to nearly four feet in length and
have one feature in commons blunt
ed tail end"