1S6 ISLES OF StlMMEIi. 



6. The musk rat — {the 2)iloris ot naturalists) — abounded on 

 some of the islands, and may have been the agouti. 



7. The alco or native dog, that did not bark, was carefully 

 fattened by the natives, and esteemed a great delicacy as an 

 article of diet. Edwards quotes the following from Acosta: " In 

 St. Domingo at first there were no dogs but a small mute creature 

 resembling a dog, with a nose like that of a fox, which the na- 

 tives called alco. The Indians were so fond of these little ani- 

 mals that they carried them on their shoulders wherever they 

 went, or nourished them in their bosoms. " 



8. Monkeys. These were used for food, and are said to have 

 very much the flavor of hare. Englishmen seem to have had a 

 sort of Darwinian instinct, and to have deemed an invitation to 

 dine upon monkeys substantially the same as to pick the dry 

 bones of their dead ancestors. 



The only snake we saw while at the Bahamas, was discovered 

 and killed near the west gate of the hotel enclosure. We think 

 they are neither numerous or dangerous. 



Mr. Phelps Avrites that the chicken snake is the only represen- 

 tative wpon the island of New Providence of the whole family of 

 serpents; that it resembles the milk snake; and that it is reported 

 to attain sometimes a length of fifteen feet, but that the largest 

 one he saw and measured was six feet long, and two inches in 

 diameter in the largest part. He adds: ''They are perfectly 

 harmless. The only venomous creatures on the island are the 

 tarantulas, or ground spiders, as they are called by the natives. 

 They are found but rarely, and only upon the plantations. In 

 my many excursions I never came across either a tarantula or a 

 scorpion. My specimens were obtained of the negroes, whose 

 services were secured through the stimulating influence of pecu- 

 niary rewards. Centipedes are occasionally met with, but their 

 sting, though very painful, is not fatal." 



