Dr. Geoffry Keating, in his _History of Ireland_ (in the Irish language), which he completed about the year 1625, says: "Saoilim gurab do an _deamhnaibk_ gairmithear _naithreacha nimke_ i m-beathaidh Patraic" ("I think that by the serpents spoken of in the life of St. Patrick were meant _demons_"). _Serpents_ figure among the carvings and hieroglyphical ornaments on some of the remnants of Irish antiquity which still puzzle our antiquaries. On Cruach Padruig, in Mayo, there is a sort of tarn which still bears the name of Loch na Pheiste, or the Serpent's Lake; and one of "the Two Lakes," whence Gleandaloch derives its name, has the same appellation. Solinus, who flourished at the close of the second century, notices, I believe, the strange fact of Ireland's having an immunity from reptiles; Isidore and Bede, in the seventh and eighth centuries, respectively repeat the assertion. Donatus, Bishop of Fesulæ, who flourished about the middle of the ninth century, says, in a Latin poem on his native country: "Nulla venena nocent; nec Serpens serpit in herbâ; Nec conquesta canit garrula Rana lacu In qua Scotorum gentes habitare merentur; Inclyta gens hominum, milite, pace, fide." "Rana." A note on this word in Montgomery's _Poetry of Ireland_ declares: "However fabulous this may appear, it is certain that _Frogs_ were formerly unknown in this country: _they were first propagated here from spawn introduced as an experiment by a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1696_." Joceline of Furnes, Sir James Ware, Fynes Moryson, and several others, notice the absence of serpents in Ireland. A Belfast correspondent to the _Dublin Penny Journal_, June, 1834, mentions some cases of _introducing reptiles_ into Ireland: "About 1797, a gentleman is said to have imported from England into Wexford, a number of vipers:" they died immediately after. He continues:-- "We are sorry to record that the virtues of the good old times have passed away, _as snakes are at this moment_ (June, 1834) _free denizens of the County of Down, and gambolling in its shrubberies and plantings_." The particulars are as follows: "In the summer of 1831, a gentleman, by way of experiment to ascertain whether snakes would survive in Ireland, brought from Scotland a few pair of what are usually called the common snake (_Coluber natrix_). These he put into a plantation at Milecross, near Newtownards, where they soon from their number gave evidence of becoming as fruitful as if they had been placed in South Carolina." I have not heard how long the snakes continued at Milecross, but I believe they are not there now. The Marquis of W----d, I have heard, in a similar freak, endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to propagate snakes on his property.