Ireland, by virtue of its patron Saint, lays claim to a national exemption from all sorts of reptiles, poison- ous as well as not.

Ray, however, mentions the green lizard as indigenous ; how truly is not affirmed : but the informed and the uninformed, the high and the low, from that country, do say, that nothing of the kind is to be found within the green limits of the " first gem of the sea.

" Sweden, as it is related in Barrow's agreeably written journal, claims a similar exemption; but, if Linnaeus was not dreaming when he fancied himself poisoned by a venomous reptile inhabiting the bogs of that country, it seems to be without foundation ; and, perhaps, all that can be said in favour of the claim of either country is, that it is a popular prejudice; but, if it be taken seriously, then, indeed, with due gravity, the fact maybe questioned by doubting if the cause, in the former country, be adequate to produce the effect ; and, in Sweden, it may be asked, if any one has been at the trouble to ascertain it.

Had Wales been exempt from the visitation, Pennant, by no means deficient in nationality, would have claimed it for his native mountains.

According to him (who, as an enquiring and observing person, is no mean authority on the subject, the more so, as he could speak from personal observation), vipers swarm in many of the Hebrides.