ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF THE SHIP. 593 



the seams on the upper leathers. One huge winged Cockroach 

 baffled me in my attempts to get rid of him for a long time. I 

 could not discover his retreat. At night he came out and rested 

 on my book-shelf, at the foot of my bed, swaying his antennae to 

 and fro, and watching me closely. If I reached out my hand 

 from bed, to get a stick, or raised my book to throw it at him, he 

 dropped at once on the deck, and was forthwith out of harm's way. 



He bothered me much, because when my light was out, he 

 had a familiar habit of coming to sip the moisture from my face 

 and lips, which was decidedly unpleasant, and awoke me often 

 from a cloze. I believe it was with this object, that he watched 

 me before I went to sleep. I often had a shot at him with a 

 book or other missile, as he sat on the book-shelf, but he always 

 dodged and escaped. His quickness and agility astonished me. 

 At last I triumphed, by adopting the advice of Captain Maclear, 

 and shooting him with a pellet of paper from my air-gun, a mode 

 of attack for which he was evidently unprepared ; but I was taken 

 to task for discharging the air-gun in my cabin, because it made 

 a noise just like the sharp crack of a spar when broken by the 

 force of the breeze, and created some excitement on the upper 

 deck, where the sound was plainly heard. 



In the zoological laboratory on board, small red ants estab- 

 lished themselves, and used to follow trails up the legs of the 

 tables, and find out anything eatable. Clothes-moths were a 

 terrible pest, and destroyed several garments for me in my cabin. 

 Mosquitos swarmed in the ship at some ports, as well as house- 

 flies, but these both disappeared when we had been at sea for a 

 few days in a breeze. 



Once, when we were becalmed three days out from Teneriffe, 

 on the voyage to St. Thomas, I went out in a boat to collect 

 surface animals. Some of the house-flies, which w^ere swarm- 

 ing in the ship, accompanied the boat on the excursion in 

 sufficient numbers to be a pest, I suppose in expectation of 

 reaching the shore. 



House-crickets appeared in the ship towards the end of 

 the voyage, and two of them established themselves in Staff 

 Commander Tizard's cabin, to his great annoyance, as they were 

 as noisy as at home. They were, however, caught with some 



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