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:"