PREFACE. 



much afraid of it, that I have sometimes found it difficult 

 to induce my boatmen to pull up beneath its shade. 



In Carpenter's Natural History of the Bible, a popular 

 English work, reprinted by Abbott in America, a descrip- 

 tion of the gecko is given worthy of the days of King 

 Arthur. " It is thus described," says the author, " by 

 Cepede : ' Of all the oviparous quadrupeds whose history 

 we are publishing, this is the first that contains a deadly 

 poison. This deadly lizard, which deserves all our atten- 

 tion by his dangerous properties, has some resemblance to 

 the chameleon. The name gecko, imitates the cry of 

 this animal, which is heard especially before rain. It is 

 found in Egypt, India, Amboyna, &,c. It inhabits by 

 choice the crannies of half rotton trees, as well as humid 

 places. It is sometimes met with in houses, where it 

 occasions great alarm, and where every exertion is used 

 to destroy it speedily. Bontius states, that its bite is so 

 venomous, that if the part bitten be not cut away or burn- 

 ed, death ensues in a few hours.' " 



It is well known in India that the gecko is as harmless 

 as the cricket. I have had them drop from the ceiling 

 upon my naked hand, and hang suspended by the feet 

 from my fingers without the slightest pain or inflammation 

 ensuing. 



Stuart on Rev. 21 : 18, says : " The bottom row of 

 foundation stones was jasper — which is of a green trans- 

 parent colour, streaked with red veins." Such a defini- 

 tion of jasper I have never been able to find in any 

 work on mineralogy ; and Webster, following Dana, de' 

 fines it : "An opake impure variety of quartz, of red, 

 yellow, and also of some dull colours." The distinctive 

 character of jasper from other minerals that resemble it, is 

 " its opacity." The Greek word as used by the Apostle, 

 undoubtedly designated the stone now called heliotrope 

 or blood-stone — a mineral of a remarkably deep, rich, 

 green; and translucent, but spotted with opake red spots, 

 supposed to be red jasper. There is in it something 

 peculiarly agreeable to the eye above all other precious 

 stones I ever saw, or that probably exist ; and were he- 

 liotrope inserted in the version; the imagination of ev- 



