292 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



in a dark crevice or under a drooping leaf. They 

 like to conceal themselves beneath the leaves of such 

 plants as the aloes, where one broad leaf underlaps 

 the other, and where they can rest almost unseen. You 

 see it also on the walks, its hairy- legs outstretched, 

 its ugly body flat to the earth, resembling a bunch of 

 catkins from the trumpet-tree, which everywhere lie 

 scattered about. Poke it with a stick, and, instead 

 of trying to escape, it will climb up that stick so vig- 

 orously toward your hand, that, ten to one, you will 

 drop it and run. Turn it over, and it discloses a pair 

 of sharp, beak-like jaws, red within, which, with its 

 gleaming eyes, have a cruel appearance. With its 

 legs spread, this spider will sometimes cover the area 

 of a saucer. 



Centipedes and scorpions, also, abound here. In- 

 deed, it seems that nature has bestowed upon this 

 island of Martinique all the pests and scourges 

 known to these islands ; for only here and in the 

 adjacent island of St. Lucia is found that most ven- 

 omous and vengeful of all serpents, the Lance-head 

 snake Craspcdoccphalns lanccolatus. The isolation 

 of this snake in these two islands, when its nearest 

 habitat is Guiana, is one of the most vexing stumbling- 

 blocks to one studying the distribution of animals. 

 How came it here? Was it introduced, or is it in- 

 digenous? Was it wafted here upon some floating 

 tree, or was its home here from the beginning? The 

 correct solution of this problem would, doubtless, throw 

 some light upon that more important and gigantic one, 

 Were these islands once a part of the continents? Cer- 

 tain it is, the adjacent islands of Dominica and St. 

 Vincent, separated from these by channels less than 



