238 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



cannot efface it. Our first morning, then, between 

 breakfast and lunch, was spent at the lighthouse, 

 which not to see and admire would have been to 

 offend our only neighbour greviously : and on the 

 plateau before it, where we turned over stones 

 and dislodged the great Lycosa spider that lurked 

 under two out of three. This arachnid (L. porto- 

 santana) is a tarantula, closely related to, though 

 not identical with, the species found in Madeira, 

 and Deserta, a neighbouring island owned by 

 Messrs. Cossart and Hinton. If feeds on small 

 land-molluscs, and masses of the shells, sucked dry 

 of their occupants, lay beneath each stone. I took 

 a number of these spiders home to the Zoo, together 

 with a smaller black one, commonly regarded as 

 fatally venomous, though in all probability quite 

 harmless, and some males and females of the 

 zebra-spider. The last-named spun its strong 

 webs in every clump of cactus in the hotel garden, 

 writing across it that curious zigzag white hiero- 

 glyph, which naturalists gifted with a ready imagi- 

 nation have interpreted as arachnid for " Will 

 you walk into my parlour ? " Those, however, 

 who know something of the animals' anatomy 

 recognise in the so-called " writing " a means 

 of using up superfluous building material. All 

 my cargo of spiders, some twenty in number, 

 lived through the voyage to England without 

 food. Every effort was made by myself and my 



