"Quite possibly you have," Doctor Bronson answered, with a smile, "and thereby hangs a bit of history. An enterprising American was trading on the coast of Siberia, where formerly great numbers of whales were killed. Their bones were thickly scattered along the beach, and he conceived the idea of turning them to account.
"He hired the natives, and set some of his own men at work to collect the bones of three good-sized whales. Out of the ribs and vertebræ of the three he constructed a magnificent snake a hundred and ten feet long, and with a capacity sufficient for swallowing a four-horse coach, with team, passengers, driver, and all. He was careful to reject the head, pretending it had not been found; if he had shown the head, the deception would have been revealed too soon for his purpose, as some one would have been sure to recognize it as the head of a whale.
"He shipped his prize to Hamburg, and it was put on exhibition there, and then offered for sale. It was bought by a wealthy museum, and the scientific men came from far and near to see it. The speculator disappeared; not long after he had gone the secret came out, and the wonderful serpent was found to be the skeletons of three whales neatly put together.
"One thing I had almost forgotten to mention: the snakes in the Indian seas were useful in showing ships their position before the mariner's compass was invented. Pliny says the Roman navigators 'directed their course by the flight of birds, which they took with them and let go from time to time; also various signs in the sea, such as the color of the water, and sea-snakes floating on the surface.' A Turkish treatise, written in 1550, mentions a route from Aden to Guzerat, and then by the coast to Malabar, working by the stars, sea-snakes, and birds; and a Mohammedan writer, in 1749, says that, while sailing along the coast of Ceylon, they knew they were near the land three days before they saw it, from the snakes in the sea."
[CHAPTER XVI.]
ARRIVAL IN CEYLON.—CINGALESE BOATS.—PRECIOUS STONES OF THE EAST.
The steamer sped onward to the south-west, toward the shores of Ceylon; favored by the north-east monsoon, she made good progress, and the time passed rapidly for our friends. On the morning of the third day, after they lost sight of the Andaman Islands, a sail was reported directly ahead, and the boys were thrown into a state of excitement in consequence.
Rapidly they approached the stranger, which was soon made out to be a craft of a style that had not been seen before. As it came toward them, Fred remarked that it was the narrowest boat he had ever seen to carry such a sail, and Frank wondered why it did not tip over; but as it came nearer, and swung along-side, he saw the reason why.