The ancients were aware of this hibernation of reptiles; and Pliny, who, having sometimes a foundation of fact to build upon, is all the more dangerous from his fabulous superstructure, writes, ‘The viper is the only serpent that conceals itself in the earth. It can live there without taking food for a whole year. _They are not venomous when they are asleep_,’ he sagely adds. Vipers can live without food for even more than a year, and so can other snakes; but this often is irrespective of hibernation, and of this more will be said presently. A still stronger evidence of vitality or suspended animation is witnessed in the extraordinary custom of packing the poor wretched snakes in air-tight bottles, which some barbarous (the word here in both senses may be used) people adopt. A Cerastes arrived in England in a bottle, which had been hermetically closed for six weeks, and it revived. It was so crowded into the bottle as to look quite dead, but revived directly it was released, and struck a fowl, which died instantly! Sometimes a bottle or jar is literally crowded with ophidian captives, that are certainly out of harm’s way so far as others are concerned, and travel in a compact compass; but it stands to reason that even when they survive this close imprisonment, they are not in a very lively condition, and the large mortality which is found in most collections may be imputed to a great extent to the unhealthy condition in which they arrive after injudicious packing. Nailed up in air-tight boxes, is a very ordinary mode of transportation, a species of cruelty which would raise a cry of horror were the captive any other than a despised ‘reptile!’ In connection with breathing or not breathing, and powers of endurance, _such packing_ receives only a passing mention here, but is one that should be thoroughly exposed in the _Animal World_ and similar papers. One more singular example of periodical repose, but which can scarcely be called either hibernation or estivation, is seen in the sea snakes, the _Hydrophidæ_ of the Eastern Ocean. Of these Dr. Cantor affirms that they are seen so soundly asleep on the surface of the water, that a ship passing among them does not awaken them. This is the more remarkable because the eyes of sea snakes are organized to endure the glare of light only when modified or subdued through water, and are easily affected when out of it, the reptiles becoming dazzled, and even blinded, by bright sunshine. So that we must suppose some peculiar insensibility of nerve in these, or a cessation of active functions during their repose analogous to the hibernation of land snakes. Another interesting inquiry suggests itself: viz. How does one ascertain that an open-eyed snake is ‘_asleep_’? We called that Racer (p. 64) ‘asleep,’ as it appeared to be quite unconscious of interruption, and did not move at our approach. [Illustration] CHAPTER XI. _THE TAIL OF A SNAKE._