136 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
6. The musk rat—(the piloris of naturalists) —abounded on 
some of the islands, and may have been the agouti. 
% The alco or native dog, that did not bark, wag seg 
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 asmall 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 writes that the chicken snake is the only represen- 
tative upon 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.” 
