REPTILES AND SNAKE-STONES. 9 



ashes. It was ultimately secured, found to be a 

 little lizard, was put into spirits, and sent to 

 Buffon. Thus runs the story, of which we must 

 permit our readers to believe in proportion to 

 their credulity. 



We have now indicated the primary groups 

 which include the seventeen species found either 

 as true natives, or naturalized, or as occasional 

 visitors to the British Isles. Of these, two belong 

 to the Chelonians or Tortoises, four to the Saurians 

 or Lizards, three to the Ophidians or Snakes, and 

 eight to the Amphibians, of which latter, half 

 belong to -the section in which the individuals, 

 when mature, are not possessed of a tail, and 

 half to the section of Amphibians having tails 

 in all the stages of their existence. Only one of 

 the seventeen is capable of inflicting serious 

 injury by means of its venomous fangs, although 

 the toad secretes an acrid fluid beneath its skin, 

 to which allusion will hereafter be made. 



" Frogs and toads are found on the Shetlands, 

 whilst Viper a berus, the most northern snake, is 

 already scarce in the north of Scotland. Rana 

 temporaries is met with in the Alps, round lakes, 

 near the region of eternal snow, which are nine 

 months covered with ice; whilst Vipera berus 

 reaches only to the height of 5,000 feet in the 

 Alps, and of 7,000 in the Pyrenees. A triton 

 or a frog, being frozen in water, will awake to its 



