104 SCORPIONS — CENTIPEDES. Chap. IV. 



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 laugh- 

 ing 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 hair, 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 cata- 

 leptic 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 occasionally found their way into our beds ; but 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 chain-cable, and some 

 poisonous ones were caught in the cabin. A green snake 

 lived with us several weeks, concealing himself behind the 

 casing of the deckhouse in the daytime. To be aroused in 

 the dark by five feet of cold green snake gliding over one's 



