354 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



may be 28 inches in length ; and if it is, it is well 

 worth preservation as an exceptionally large speci- 

 men. Honestly measured, however, I question if it 

 will be found to be quite so large as my Iona speci- 

 men. In any case " Eoin's " guinea is perfectly safe. 

 If the owner of the bottled snake agrees to his pro- 

 posal, I am confident that, far from measuring 36 

 inches, the specimen in question will not even 

 measure 30 inches ; and I shall be surprised to 

 hear that it is of equal length with that sent to 

 me from Iona. 



It will be of some interest, perhaps, if I state that 

 although got in Iona, and sent to me from Iona, the 

 adder does not occur in that sacred isle. Adamnan 

 tells us that St Columba banished all noxious animals 

 from Iona, just as St Patrick banished " all the ver- 

 min " from Ireland. The way in which Mr Eitchie 

 got the adder which he was so kind as send on to me 

 was this. Walking on a beautifully bright and calm 

 summer evening along the silvery strand that borders 

 the narrow sound that separates Iona from the island 

 of Mull, which abounds in adders, he noticed some 

 creature swimming fast towards the shore. When it 

 landed it rested for a little on the warm white sand, 

 which we may suppose was grateful to it after swim- 

 ming across the sound. It then wriggled up until it 

 reached the adjoining grass-land — the soil proper of 

 the sacred isle — into which it had not crept more 

 than twice its own length when it suddenly stopped 



