Though purely oceanic, and no more found in fresh water than on dry ground, yet they come some distance up the rivers as far as brackish water. When washed on shore by the surf, they are helpless and blind, and at such times ‘peaceable,’ by reason of their helplessness. Occasionally they are seen coiled up asleep on the beach, where they have probably been washed by the tide, and where the next tide will no doubt release them from their uncongenial bed. Those species which have a less keeled body and the partially developed ventral scales might even manage to get back to sea independently of the tide. Even those without ventral scales contrive to wriggle along in their own fashion.
Such an occurrence is related by Mr. E. H. Pringle in the Field newspaper of 3d September 1881. He tracked an Enhydrina fifty feet along the sands, making its way back to the sea from a salt-water pool, where it had probably been left by the tide. This species is the one peculiarly favoured in having tiny orifices for the egress of the tongue tips on each side of its lobulated snout.
Enhydrina. From Fayrer’s
Thanatophidia.
Its profile, being somewhat remarkable, is here presented to the reader, who will perhaps detect a certain determination in that very beak-like snout. This species is found along the Burman coast. Another, though keeping to its native element, has explored the Pacific to the very borders of America, and has been seen on the western coast of Panama. This is Pelamis bicolor, of distinct black and yellow, like a striped satin ribbon. The back is black, and the belly brown or yellowish, and its rather short, flat tail is spotted with a bluish colour as well. None of his relatives venture so far from the oriental islands as Pelamis. His presence as far north as New Caledonia has not, that I am aware of, been authoritatively recorded; we cannot suggest, therefore, the probability of ‘J. J. A.’s’ sea snakes, ‘stupid and fearless,’ being ‘incredible numbers’ of the Pelamis family. Dr. Stradling affirms that they are ‘not unfrequently met with along the eastern coast of South America, and that one found its way on board the royal mail steamship Douro, and concealed itself under the covering of the patent lead, having probably climbed up the quarter line as she lay made fast to the wharf at Santos.’[74]
Some slight controversy on the possibility of Pelamis ‘climbing’ followed this statement. But Mr. F. Buckland also recorded one ‘which crawled up the anchor-chain of a man-of-war, when she was moored in the mouth of the Ganges. The midshipman of the watch saw something moving along the chain, and without thinking went to pick it up, when it turned upon him, and bit him. The poor young midshipman did not live many hours after the accident’ (Land and Water, Nov. 15, 1879).
In the same issue the writer described one which was caught in the telegraph wire of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company. One of the cables was being raised, and when it came to the surface, the snake was found coiled tightly round it. Hydrophis was here exercising his prehensile powers, not understanding the reason of the violent motion. Snakes, as has been already affirmed, are not restricted in their acrobatic achievements; so that even sea snakes, not naturally either climbers or crawlers, can do both on an occasion.
The more interesting question regarding Dr. Stradling’s cable climber is, was it a true Pelamis, or one of the Hydrophidæ at all? If so, it was more likely to be an entirely distinct species from those of the oriental seas. Either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope would be far too southward for their range, they being essentially tropical. When Panama comes to be severed by water communication, some enterprising Pelamis or Enhydrina may find its way through, and get down even to Santos; but at present, as Dr. Stradling did not see the snake, but only heard of it, the evidence of the presence of Hydrophidæ on the eastern coast of South America cannot be fully established.
