s there is an
all but unanimous concurrence of opinion that every species of this
family of serpents is more or less poisonous. The compression of the
tail noticed by AElian is one of the principal characteristics of these
reptiles, as their motion through the water is mainly effected by its
aid, coupled with the undulating movement of the rest of the body. Their
scales, instead of being imbricated like those of land-snakes, form
hexagons; and those on the belly, instead of being scutate and enlarged,
are nearly of the same size and form as on other parts of the body.

[Footnote 1: "[Greek: Plateis tas ouras]." AELIAN, L. xvi. c. 8.

AElian speaks elsewhere of fresh-water snakes. His remark on the
compression of the tail shows that his informants were aware of this
speciality in those that inhabit the sea.]

Sea-snakes (_Hydrophis_) are found on all the coasts of Ceylon. I have
sailed through large shoals of them in the Gulf of Manaar, close to the
pearl-banks of Aripo. The fishermen of Calpentyn on the west live in
perpetual dread of them, and believe their bite to be fatal. In the
course of an attempt which was recently made to place a lighthouse on
the great rocks of the south-east coast, known by seamen as the
Basses[1], or _Baxos_, the workmen who first landed found the portion of
the surface liable to be covered by the tides, honeycombed, and hollowed
into deep holes filled with water, in which were abundance of fishes and
some molluscs. Some of these cavities also contained sea-snakes from
four to five feet long, which were described as having the head "hooded
like the cobra de capello, and of a light grey colour, slightly
speckled. They coiled themselves like serpents on land, and darted at
poles thrust in among them. The Singhalese who accompanied the party,
said that they not only bit venomously, but crushed the limb of any
intruder in their coils."[2]

[Footnote 1: The Basses are believed to be the remnants of the great
island of Giri, swallowed up by the sea.--_Mahawanso_, ch. i. p. 4. They
may possibly be the _Bassae_ of Ptolemy's map of _Taprobane_.]

[Footnote 2: Official Report to the Governor of Ceylon.]

Still, sea-snakes, though well-known to the natives, are not abundant
round Ceylon, as compared with their numbers in other places. Their
principal habitat is the ocean between the southern shores of China and
the northern coast of New Holland; and their western limit appears to be
about the long