iVest Indies, 479 



them my own man James, caught a great many. James would 

 catch four dozen in two or three hours, and then take them 

 to Spanish Town (distant five miles) where he sold them at 

 four for fivepence, or five shilhngs currency (better than 

 three shillings sterling) for the lot. They are pretty active, 

 and move off briskly at the approach of danger, and hold up 

 their claws, which are large and strong, in a menacing manner, 

 ready to punish any invader. The hogs reared in the neigh- 

 bourhood are accustomed to them, and kill and eat them. It 

 is quite diverting to see the pig make the attack. He places 

 one of his feet very cautiously, but quickly, upon the crab, and 

 soon cracks the claw with his teeth : however, he sometimes 

 fails ; and the crab instantly seizes him by the nose, and makes 

 the hog run off, shaking his head, and squeaking most pi- 

 teously. These crabs are very fine eating, and very much 

 superior to the sea crab taken on the coast of Jamaica, al- 

 though inferior in exalted flavour to the black crab. The 

 white crab, like all its congeners, casts its shell periodically. 

 For some time after the old covering is thrown off, the new 

 coat is very soft, and hardens gradually as it becomes con- 

 verted into shell by the secretion of earthy matter : while soft, 

 they are called leather-jackets, and are esteemed particularly 

 fine, being very fat, and the whole eatable. 



Insects in Jamaica 'which are either troublesome or injurious. 

 {Whitens Selborne, p. 89.) The insects which annoy residents 

 in the West Indies are the following : — the mosquito, the 

 sand fly, the bottler, and the chigo. 



The mosquito is not distinguishable from the common gnat 

 by ordinary observers, and, as Kalm says, is a variety of the 

 Cillex pipiens. In Jamaica it abounds in all lowland situ- 

 ations almost through the whole year. Those who are for- 

 tunate enough to live at an elevation of 2500 feet are exempt 

 from the sharp attacks of this creature, which does not breed 

 at a height where the climate is cool : new comers are parti- 

 cularly obnoxious to its assaults. To show the power of 

 these little tormentors to alter the physiognomy of a person, I 

 may relate the following anecdote : — Captain Newbolt, of 

 the ship Sir Edward Hamilton, having spent the day with 

 me, and enjoyed his wine, which proved a mosquito dose, he 

 slept upon the sofa in the hall, without any mosquito net. He 

 must have lain so as to expose an exact half of his face to the 

 operations of the enemy, who attacked him in such numbers, 

 that, when I saw him next morning, his appearance was both 

 curious and ludicrous : the left side of his nose and face was 

 precisely as I had seen it the day before ; but I would defy 

 any of his oldest acquaintance to have recognised him, had 



