FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 173 



earthworks of his castle, only to have him slip 

 away unobtrusively by the back entrance. 



Of insect life, bar the mosquitoes that on the 

 hottest nights after rain, sang of sleeplessness 

 and malaria, there was little variety. A large 

 species of wasp, more like a hornet in size, occasion- 

 ally alighted on our boats in the Pass and looked 

 as if, with the necessary facilities, it could do good 

 business, but I did not hear of anyone being the 

 subject of the experiment. Ashore on the islands 

 there was a wretched little pest known as the red 

 bug, so insignificant in size, yet withal so vicious in 

 its attacks, as to recall the harvest bug of 

 September shooting-days at home. A few beauti- 

 ful butterflies in the vicinity of the lighthouse, 

 where the net was never handy for their capture, 

 and the abundant but elusive fireflies, which 

 flirted round our verandah as soon as darkness 

 had swiftly fallen in a land that knows no twi- 

 light, completed the insect list for one untrained in 

 observing such of that class as do not attack his 

 person. 



Mosquitoes, both Culex and Anopheles, were 

 plentiful at times, though they never constituted 

 a serious trouble to more than one member of the 

 company, who was endowed with an abnormally 

 thin skin. This he used to anoint with some 

 preparation of asafcetida, with the result that he 

 was all but expelled from the mess. Personally, 

 the mosquitoes troubled me very little, as I used my 

 own curtains, a precaution that I almost invariably 

 adopt anywhere near twenty-five degrees on either 

 side of the Line. It was not until my arrival in 

 Jamaica that, having foolishly neglected a practice 



