The Washington herald., 1911-05-28


hII pent-everybody has heard Of him!
HNI Some few even believe in him. do,
for one; although l don't believe he
is a serpent at ALL But l have often
remarked, as q very curious circum-
stance, that, whereas everyone has some opin-
ion or other as to the existence and nature of
this great reptile, many people, who are well
informed in general details Of natural history,
krow nothing of the creatures about which
am going to say few words-the true sea
serpents, real snakes in every sense of the
word, which live entirely in the sea. And
this is the more extraordinary, because there
are so many of them.
Perhaps you are already aware that more
than seven-eighths of the whole number Of
species Of snakes in the world are something
harmless. Well, of the less than one-cghth
which possess fangs-that is to say, Of all the
poisonous snakes-nearly quarter are sea
snakes. And this is not a new discovery.
Aristotle and the ancient Greek mariners
knew all about them.
Perhaps, il they were found In many differ
! ent regions Of the globe, as other serpents
arc, we should be more familiar with them
but they are principally confined to Eastern
seas, in the very heart Of the tropics, being
common everywhere in the Indian Ocean. and
especially in the Bay Of Bengal.
You could never mistake a sea serpent for
anything else, if you saw one no matter what
its color or size might be, or to which Of
the fifty or more species which have been
recognized it belonged.
To begin with. the tail, instead of being
round and pointed. as in a land snake, is fiat
tened from side to side and expanded, SO as
to form a vertical fin. or oar, giving il con-
siderable rapidity and freedom of movement
in the water.
Most kinds of snakes like to bathe, and
l., in
streams or lakes than on terra frma; but
their swimming is a very embarrassed affair,
compared with the performance of their breth-
ren Of the deep. This is particularly seen
amongst waves, or in broken water, ordinary
snakes being there almost powerless. while
sea snakes are as much at home as eels.
You may possibly ask:
"How are we to know that such creature,
IL we come across one, is not an eel? Or why,
after all, should it be called an eel! What
is the difference"
Why, an eel is a fish. while this is a reptile;
and the great difference between them is, that
the latter breathes atmospheric air, just as
n whale, or SEAL or a boy does but the
fish breathes in the water by means of gills
You know that, however good a diver you
may be, you must come to the surface to get
rid of the carbonic acid in your lungs. and to
take in fresh supply of good oxygen and,
although n whale, or an otter, or n snake
may be able to stay under water good deal
longer than the longest -winded human diver,
yet it has eventually to come up to the air
for exactly the same reason.
Then, you could tell an eel, or any other
fish, directly by its fins, while sea serpent
has none, except the spread-out tail which l
have mentioned
They have a special arrangement, which not
only enables them to stay down long time,
but lets them float easily on the surface and
bask in the sun when they want to. and
that is their one enormous lung, which ex-
tends the whole length of the body and forms
a tank for the storage of air.
All snakes have one lung only-only one
that is of any service, for there is generally .
very small second one. which need not be
counted. A snakes inside. altogether is
dreadfully "mixed up" when you come to
compare it with other animals, Everything
seems to be set aside, and pushed here or
slowed away there, on purpose to allow Of
their making the tremendous meals with which
they gorge themselves. and to permit them to
swallow their prey whole.
For instance, in any respectable carcass,
When you find one kidney, you naturally ex-
pect the other to be just opposite to it., on
the same level but in snake you must look
some distance down the back for the second
there would be no room for its dinner If they
were just abreast of one another in the ordi-
nary way.