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Show REAL SEA SERPENTS. The Horrible Character of Many or the Marine Monsters. The seas from Madagascar to Panama Pan-ama and from Japan to New Zealand are thickly infested with marine snakes. Dr. Steineger, the reptilian expert of the Smithsonian institution, says that they are among the most poisonous of all known serpents, their venom being no less deadly than that of the cobra and rattlesnakes, says the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph. Fnrthermore.thev . ara very fierce and agcrreaei-re, and will commonly attack human beings if they get a chance. They do not frequent fre-quent the shallows, unless possibly for breeding, but live in the open ocean. When full grown they are from six to eight feet long. Fishermen in the waters where they are found are greatly afraid of them. Their bodies are flat and the inside of them is almost wholly filled by the lungs, which are large, in order that they may be enabled to 6tay beneath the surface for a long time without coming up to breathe. They have eyes modified for seeing in the water, 60 that when they are taken out of their native element they seem blinded and strike wildly. Their fangs, like those of the cobra, are always erect. Undoubtedly the giant squid, which has only become familiarly known to science within a few years, has fre- quently been mistaken fora6ea serpent. In all qualities which can render a marine ma-rine monster horrible this huge and frightful mollusk may be said to compare com-pare favorably with any creatureof fact or fiction. When full grown it weighs ten thousand pounds, having a body fifty feet long, and two arms each one hundred feet in length, as well as eight smaller tentacles. A model of a diminutive diminu-tive individual, measuring only forty-two forty-two feet from the end of its tail to either tentacular extremity, is on exhibition ex-hibition at the National museum in Washington. |