122 Naturalist at Large 



scientific interest. These creatures are wormlike in many 

 respects, but with the breathing apparatus of insects and 

 with the power of ejecting two jets of viscous and irritating 

 slime from pores in the head when they are disturbed. 

 Today they are well known and well represented in col- 

 lections. This was not the case when first we visited 

 Jamaica, but we knew that two species were known to 

 occur on the island and were supposed to be extremely 

 rare. We had almost nothing representing this pecuHar 

 group of animals in the museum in Cambridge and one of 

 the special reasons for going to Jamaica was to get Peri- 

 patus. Dr. Michael Grabham was a distinguished physician 

 in Kingston and an excellent amateur entomologist. I knew 

 that he had collected a few specimens and went to him for 

 information as to where they might be found. He advised 

 going to Bath, where there was an old mineral spring and 

 hotel of sorts. He said that Perips, as we call them, oc- 

 curred only, so far as he knew, on the summit of Beacon 

 Hill, a peak in the Blue Mountains to the top of which 

 there was a path leading up from near the Bath Springs 

 House. 



Journeying in Jamaica in those days was a pleasant con- 

 trast to what it is now. We got a team of mules and a big 

 three-seated canopy top at Port Antonio and drove leisurely 

 along the narrow road to our destination at the east end 

 of the island. The scenery was superb and the method of 

 traveling permitted the most complete enjoyment of it. 

 We reached Bath after a long day's drive, got ourselves 

 settled and, fortunately, found exactly the right boy for 

 a guide. During the ensuing days we made daily trips, 

 Bremer and I, to the summit of Beacon Hill, where we 



