214 ABSENCE OF SNAKES. [1696. 



Here are no Serpents' to be seen, and the People say they 

 have been miraculously driven from this Island, as the Irish 

 pretend ♦S'^;. Patrick has banished all venomous Animals from 

 their Country. 



There are neither Lice nor Fleas, nor Toads,^ nor Frogs to 

 be seen here, no more than at Rodrigo, and I fancy there are 

 none in any of the Islands hereabouts. This abounds with 

 Fish,^ and affords sometimes yellow Amber,* and Amber- 

 greece in like manner with Rodrigo. 



Hurricanes were formerly very frequent and furious in 

 this Island, but for twenty years, or thereabouts, they have 

 none but that before-mention'd which we underwent on our 

 Kock. 'Tis true, they have in their stead, at certain Seasons,^ 



^ " Serpents." " There are no serpents in the Isle of France, and it 

 IS said that they cannot live there ; while in the surrounding islets, 

 called the Isle Ronde, the Isle Longrie, and the Coin de 3Iire, there are 

 both adders and serpents. I do not pretend to verify this opinion, but 

 in the Coin de Mire 1 have seen lizards twelve inches long." {De la Caille ; 

 vide Grant, I. c, p. 378.) 



Curiously enough, snakes have been fovmd in Round Island at 

 fourteen miles north-east of Mauritius, althougii not on the mainland. 

 They belong to the Python family, forming a distinct genus, Casarea, 

 (Cf. Wallace, Island Life, Part 11, chap, xix.) 



2 No frogs or toads, but such as have been introduced, ex"st in the 

 Mascarene islands. Some European and Indian species, including 

 Bufo melanostictus^ are now acclimatised inha,bitants. (Wallace, I. c, 

 p. 409.) 



3 "The coasts", says Baron Grant in 1741, '^ abound in fish, which 

 have been already described, as well as enormous eels which are found 

 in the rivers. I have frequently killed them with my gun in shallow 

 waters." {Op. cit., p. 195.) "The Vieille is a blackish fish, and in 

 form and taste a good deal like the cod-fish .... The water-pullet, 

 a sort of turbot, is the best of all the fish caught here ; the fat is green," 

 {St. Pierre, p. 76.) 



■* Certain islets on the north-east coast of INlauritius yet retain the 

 name of les lies d'Ambre ; vide ante, p. 163. 



^ Dr. Meldrum has established, from careful observation, the periodi- 

 city of cyclone frequency in the southern Indian Ocean ; thus the five 

 years 1847-61 were characterised by cyclone frequency, then came a 



