SNAKES IN ICELAND 233 



the origin of it, and at the request of Mr. H. T. Francis, 

 then Librarian of Gains, he wrote the history in a note 

 on the following day. 



M.C., February 12, 1903. 



MY DEAR FRANCIS, 



I told the whole of the " No snakes (or owls) 

 in Iceland ' story, chapter and verse, in Notes and 

 Queries ever so long ago perhaps 20 years but I 

 cannot lay my hands on the reference. Briefly it is this. 

 There was one Anderson, burgomaster of Hamburg, who 

 wrote " Nachrichten von Island ' ' which was (posthum- 

 ously) published in 1746 or 1747, and therein the occur- 

 rence of Owls and Snakes in that island is mentioned. 

 The Danish Government did not like what he said 

 generally of the place, and employed one Horrebow to 

 reply to him. This Horrebow did in his " Tilferladelige 

 Efterretninges om Island," published in 1752, taking 

 Anderson's assertions categorically. An English trans- 

 lation of Horrebow appeared a few years after, each of 

 the subjects on which he remarked being headed Chapter 

 so and so. Thus you have " Chaper XLII. Of Owls. 

 There are no owls of any kind in the whole island," and 

 the same with Chapter LXXII. " Of Snakes." I don't 

 suppose the book attracted much attention till Sidney 

 Smith (I think) happening to come across it saw the 

 absurdity and brought it into some article (on quite a 

 different subject) in the Edinburgh (?) Review and 

 the expression has since become famous. 



Yours very truly, 



ALFRED NEWTON. 



a complete chapter of the ' Natural History of Iceland ' from the Danish 

 of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly thus : 



' Chapter LXXII. Concerning Snakes. 



' There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.' " 



[" Life of Johnson," chapter xxxviii]. 



