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THE AMEFICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the interesting little chaps stored in 

 various pockets. Thus after ni}- years of 

 effort a little Danish school girl solved 

 the problem for me. Acting on this 

 hint I tried fine hair wire, but nothing 

 proved as effective as the thin, pliant 

 but strong stems of grass. 



It is surprising how difficult it is to 

 touch these little reptiles and yet how 

 easy to noose them. At the approach 

 of hand or net they are off faster than 

 the eye can follow, but the waving grass 

 merely interests them. Even when b}^ 

 an awkward motion one flicks their 

 nose, they merely shake the head or shift 

 a step or two. They detect no connec- 

 tion between the moving grass and the 

 more distant hand that wields it. 



Bound to the ground by their short 

 scales and four limbs, these small liz- 

 ards are yet remarkably birdlike in 

 their vivacity and their enthusiastic 

 playing of their little game of life. 

 Every motion is registered by quick 

 wrenlike movements and by the chang- 

 ing play of colors over their scales, 

 while when particularly excited, they 

 puff out a comical dewlap of yellow and 

 orange skin beneath the throat. Thanks 

 to my "flapper" acquaintance I am now 

 on more equal terms with the little 

 scaly people of the islands, and can 

 study their puzzling color problems at 

 close range. 



Looking back at Bluebeard's and 

 Blackbeard's castles from the deck of 

 our vessel as we slowly steamed from 

 the harbor, some one asked when the 

 last pirate plied his trade. I looked 

 ashore at the fort and guns, I listened 

 to the warning bugle, I watched the 

 scattered lights vanish, leaving all of 

 the town in darkness, I saw our own 

 darkened portholes and shaded lights. 

 As my mind went to the submarines 

 which inspired all these precautions, as 

 I recalled the sinister swirl in the At- 

 lantic which had threatened us more 

 than once on my return from the battle 

 front, I could answer truly that Blue- 

 beard and his ilk were worthily repre- 



sented at the present day. Indeed, of 

 the two enemies, I found much more 

 to condone in the ignorance and the 

 frank, primitive brutality of the pirate 

 of past centuries, than in the prosti- 

 tuted science and camouflaged Kultur 

 of the Teutonic Ishmaelite of today. 



St. Kitts, a Pluxge, Exploration, 

 AND Monkeys 



I came on deck at daybreak and 

 found the sea like a mirror. Even the 

 clouds were undisturbed, resting quietly 

 in the mountain valleys of St. Eusta- 

 tius, and on the upper slopes of St. 

 Kitts in the distance. The tropical 

 morning was a laz}^ one, and the en- 

 gines seemed to throb in a half-somno- 

 lent manner. I folded up into a deck 

 chair and idly watched the beautiful 

 profile of the island astern. 



Suddenly the sea became alive with 

 virile beings — curving steel-gray bodies 

 which shot forth like torpedoes from 

 some mighty battery. I thrilled in 

 every fiber and the sloth of the tropics 

 fell from me as if by a galvanic shock : 

 the dolphins had come ! Usually they 

 appear in their haunts between Do- 

 minica and Martinique or off the latter 

 island, but here they were in dozens, 

 leaping for breath with the regularity 

 of machinery. Now and then the spirit 

 of play would possess one and he 

 vaulted high in air, ten feet above the 

 surface, twisted and fell broadside 

 with a slap which could be heard a half 

 mile away. Then several simultane- 

 ously did the same thing. A school 

 would come clo^e alongside, slacken 

 speed to that of the vessel, and now 

 and then dive beneath and appear off 

 the opposite quarter. Another trick 

 was for one or two to station them- 

 selves just ahead of the bow and re- 

 main motionless, urged on by the pres- 

 sure of the water from behind. It was 

 very unexpected and very splendid to 

 have this battalion of magnificent ceta- 

 ceans, bursting with vital energy and 

 fullness of life, injected without warn- 



