276 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



not very well marked. Its bite is dangerous if not 

 properly treated. My brother was once bitten by one 

 just behind the nail on the thumb. He did little to 

 it, but ran to a farmhouse, where lie stayed exhausted 

 until fetched away in a state of collapse, and was a 

 week before being pronounced out of danger. His 

 whole arm swelled to double its natural size, and was 

 black and blue all over. 



" In my experience the smooth snake is not to be 

 found here at all; at any rate I have never observed it, 

 or known any one to have seen one. Its distribution 

 seems to be an extremely local one." — A. Lander, Hon. 

 Sec. East Kent Nat. Hist. Soc, Canterbury. 



Surrey. 



" Personally I have seen more adders than ring 

 snakes in this county, but that observation may 

 be a local distribution. I have measured two as 

 large as 23J inches, but these were above the usual 

 length. I once took a full-grown slow-worm from 

 the stomach of an adder which was taken on a 

 heath near here." — Oswald H. Latter, Charterhouse, 

 Godalming, Surrey. 



Farnham District. — " The adder is by far the 

 most common snake here, but I have not measured 

 specimens. The ring snake is hardly ever found 

 upon these heathlands, and although I have taken 

 them within ten or twelve miles of here, I have 



