These latter words suggest what has not been mentioned as a positive fact, while yet in part it is corroborated by Cantor, who tells us that the young sea snakes feed on soft-shelled molluscs; we may argue, therefore, that the mother snakes come into shallow water to give birth to their young, where small fish and suitable food may abound. Aristotle was evidently aware of the distinctions between fresh and salt water snakes, and gives us the former as frequenting rivers (‘potable waters’). The Greek mariners who frequented the tropical seas knew of the poisonous snakes with wholesome dread. Sir Emerson Tennant tells us that the fishermen on the west coast of Ceylon are still in perpetual fear of them. They say there are some with the head hooded like the cobra, that coil themselves up like serpents on land, not only biting with their teeth, but ‘crushing their prey in their coils.’ The ‘hood’ part of the story is not borne out by any scientific writer; and as for the ‘crushing in coils,’ the sailors may possibly mistake the prehensile actions of holding on—even to a large fish—possibly for the action of crushing in the way of constricting. In self-protection, or for safety, venomous serpents do entwine themselves pretty tightly round an object sometimes. An instance of this was just now given. But constricting for the purpose of killing is happily confined to the non-venomous families. It would indeed be terrible if the ‘giants of the waters’ could both constrict and bite with poison fang; and of this a word or two will be said in the following chapter. Admittedly but little has been accurately ascertained about the marine serpents in comparison with the terrestrial ones. And there really may be species hitherto unobserved. The great sea serpent question is not yet satisfactorily settled; and among the lesser kind, the true pelagians, varieties are frequently occurring. Krefft describes one in the Australian Museum which, not being like any other that he had seen, he sets down as a new type. Forty-eight distinct species were described by Cantor. The whole family comprises seven genera, four of which belong to the Indian Ocean. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XV. ‘_THE GREAT SEA SERPENT._’ THE question of varieties and of constriction brings us to ‘The Great Sea Serpent;’ for, putting all the evidence together, if the creature exist at all he must be a constrictor. I do not intend to trouble my readers with the detailed history of this great unknown, for his literature would more than exceed the limits of this whole volume. Those who are sufficiently interested in him will find ample reading in most of the encyclopedias, which again refer us to various books in which he has figured from his first supposed appearance in modern times.