The Washington times., 1901-09-22
VENoMoUs SEA SNAKES.
Instances of Death Resulting From
SERPENT Bites.

These snakes must not be confounded
| with the very numerous species of sea
| eels which. though exceedingly savage
| and armed with strong, needle-pointed
| teth are all non-venomous, though their
| bites produce high inflammation, II not at
| once properly attended to and cleaned by
an antiseptic. The sea snake is a true
snake in many respects. having either
| laminated scales or a thick corduroyed
skin resembling rudimentary scales; the
| head is fiat, and the general structure of
the body similar to that of the land
| snake. The writer continues:
Whether any of them possess the true
poison glands and fangs 1 do not know,
| for although / have killed many hundreds
of them, never took sufficient interest
| to make careful examination, and l was
| told by Dutch medical gentleman, long
resident on the coast of Dutch New
| Guinea, and who had made much investi-
CATION on the subject, that he had failed
to discover 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 comImon to Venomous land
snakes, but on deuliled examination these
always proved to he perfectly solid; new
crtheless, bite from one of these sea SER
pentS was generally reSdrueu Dy tHe ild-
tives as fatal.
I'm my own experience l know of two
such cases. one at the Island OF F'otuna.
in the South Pacific. and the other in
Torres Straits In Sigavi Harbor, on Fo-
tuna there is a rock to which vessels oc-
casionally make fast their stern moor
ings. In the boat which L sent away with
line to this rock were several boys. ma
tives 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 OH 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 punct-
ures. The boy at once swan on shore to
be treated by nntive; in the evening
heard that he was suffering great agony;
in the morning the poor little fellow was
dead. The second Instance was near
Raine Island. in Torres Straits. A stall
wart young Kanaka, one of the crew of
pearling lugser, was diving for clam
shells on the reef. when a snake about
three feet in length suddenly shot up from
below within foot of his face. In his
anger and disgust he unthinkingly struck
it with his hand and was quickly bitten
on the forefnger. few hours later he
was in high fever. accompanied with
twitching of the extremities: then tetanus
ensued. followed by death in forty-eight
hours.
Although these sea snakes are common
TO most tropical seas, they are most fire.
quent about the Great Barrier Reef of
Australia. On any smooth day they may
be seen disportng their selves on the sur
face 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
detestatiOn and horror, and when one is
seen lying coiled up on a rock summing
itself or crawling over the surface of the
reef In search of food. stone accompa-
MED by a curse, is always hurled at 1t. In
the Elllice group. when catching flying fish
at night. one or more of these horrid ser
pents Is sometimes swept up In the scoop
net before II can be avoided They range
from six inches to nearly four feet In
length and have one feature In common
a blunted tail end. Leisure Hours,