Chap. VI. SCORPIONS— CENTIPEDES. 151 



prudent European cousins, whicli are said to leave a sinking- 

 ship, a party of these took up their quarters in our leaky 

 and sinking vessel. Quiet and invisible by day, they emerged 

 at night, and cut their funny pranks. No sooner were we all 

 asleep, than they made a sudden dash over the lockers and 

 across our faces for the cabin door, where all broke out into 

 a loud He ! he ! he ! he ! he ! he ! showing how keenly they 

 enjoyed the joke. They next went forward with as much 

 delight, and scampered over the men. Every night they went 

 fore and aft, rousing with impartial feet every sleeper, and 

 laughing to scorn the aimless blows, growls, and deadly rushes 

 of outraged humanity. We observed elsewhere, a species of 

 large mouse, nearly allied to Euryotis unisulcatus (F. Cuvier), 

 escaping up a rough and not very upright wall, with six young- 

 ones firmly attached to the perineum. They were old enough 

 to be well covered with hah', and some were not detached by 

 a blow which disabled the dam. We could not decide whether 

 any involuntary muscles were brought into play, in helping 

 the young to adhere. Their weight seemed to require a sort 

 of cataleptic state of the muscles of the jaw, to enable them 

 to hold on. 



Scorpions, centipedes, and poisonous spiders also, were not 

 unfrequently brought into the ship with the wood, and oc- 

 casionally found their way into our beds; bui, in every 

 instance, we were fortunate enough to discover and destroy 

 them, before they did any harm. Naval officers on this coast 

 report, that when scorpions and centipedes remain a few 

 weeks after being taken on board in a similar manner, their 

 poison loses nearly all its virulence, but this we did not verify. 

 Snakes sometimes came in with the wood, but oftener floated 

 down the river to us, climbing on board with ease by the 

 cnain-cable, and some poisonous ones were caught in the 



