156 NATURAL HISTORY 



Whether there are any Lizards in the Orkneys I cannot 

 say, rather think not ; and of the Serpent-kind happily not 

 one. 



To follow the method Linnaeus has laid down in his System 

 of Nature, the Cartilaginous Fishes ought to come in here, but 

 these scarce can be called amphibious ; notwithstanding of 

 their capacity of living in the water, they cannot subsist for 

 any time at land ; nay, there are of these which are more pro- 

 perly termed Fishes, can live much longer at land than any of 

 these can : for example, eels, which have been observed to pass 

 from pond to pond over the moist meadows, hkeasmany ser- 

 pents. Frogs are really amphibious, and can live both on land 

 and water; Serpents are in some measure so, and can live some 

 time in the water, — butthese perish soon aftertheir being drawn 

 ashore. To place then all the fishes together, we shall fol- 

 low the method laid down in the English authors, rather than 

 the Swedish, in this particular. 



