[Footnote 1:  Chersydrus granulatus, Merr.; Cerberus cinereus. Daud.; Tropidophis schistosus, Daud.]

The sea-snakes of the Indian tropics did not escape the notice of the early Greek mariners who navigated those seas; and amongst the facts collected by them, AElian has briefly recorded that the Indian Ocean produces serpents with flattened tails[1], whose bite, he adds, is to be dreaded less for its venom than the laceration of its teeth.  The first statement is accurate, but the latter is incorrect, as 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.]