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New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5134, 28 November 1903, Page 10

Periodically something occurs to raise again tho question whether St. Patrick really did make a decree banishing snakes from Ireland. Naturalists, have no superstitions about such an edict. Ireland and Britain long ago were ono land; then they were separated by the sea; then reunited for a brief period; and. finally, the sea parted them once more. The distribution of animals shows that tho Emerald Isle was cut off from Britain before. it waa severed from the Continent. Mammalia and reptiles travelled westward, and thus it is found that while Gernuuiy hag 90 species of mammalia Britain has-only 40 and Ireland only 22; and while Belgium has 22 speciesi of reptiles and amphibia, Britain has 13 and 4. Whon Ireland was last elevated an isthmus connected the two countries, but, as Professor Jnkes-Browne says, "tho isthmus waa submerged again, before more than four of tho Continental species of reptiles had crossed ip sufficient numbers to form a permanent settlement.” Sornaats como rather late in tho apler of reptilian development, and they were too lato to get across what is ■ now St. George's Channel and the Irish Sea.