Guernsey pictorial directory and stranger's guide

by of Guernsey Thomas Bellamy

Reptiles and Snakes—

Are not known in the island, neither will they exist on being introduced. Heylin, of old, speaking of Guernsey, says:—"The aire hereof is very healthfull, as may be well seen in the long lives both of men and women; and the earth said to be of the same nature with Crete and Ireland, not apt to foster any venomous creature in it." The only reptile of the snake genus is the slow-worm, and even that exceedingly rare.