Slater : Rodrigues, and its Fauna. 



29 



revealed agree with one another, and supplement one another and 

 explain one another. No doubt there are discrepancies between the two 

 at present, as far as we are acquainted with science ; but I feel certain 

 that the time is not far distant when the two will go hand in hand, 

 and not, as at present, in ill-concealed hostility. 



Passing from the extinct fauna to that which is still in existence, 

 there are two or three branches of the insect and allied classes which 

 Lave the power to force themselves on the attention of all who visit 

 Rodrigues, whether naturalists or not. These are the centipedes, 

 ants, and mosquitoes. The centipedes, which are seven or eight inches 

 long, are certainly the most villanous-looking creatures I have met 

 with, though before I left the island I had got to regard them with 

 comparative indifference. They don't enter buildings much, but, when 

 camping out, they used at night to crawl all over my tent, and the 

 noise of all their legs, when I had retired to bed, crawling on the 

 canvas floor was horrid. Hardly a night used to pass at first without 

 my hearing a howl of anguish from the Indian quarters and receiving 

 a call for medicine (which was ammonia), for centipede's bite. They 

 used to have a regular hunt for them after a little time of this kind of 

 thing, and kill all they could find before they went to bed, and then 

 they slept better. These creatures used to get into one's sponge, 

 if not carefully hung up by a string, as one of our party found to his 

 cost, for on feeling the cold water it came out in a rage and bit him 

 in the face. He thought that was not a likely thing to happen again, 

 so he continued to leave his sponge about, but it did happen again, 

 and this time he got bitten on the nose, which for a day or two was 

 almost the size of a moderate turnip. After this he thought he might 

 as well hang his sponge up, as the rest did. 



The ants are a dreadful nuisance, as they swarm in houses, and shew 

 a great partiality for sugar and jam. At tea-time you find that your 

 sugar is about half ant ; so the only way is to put into your cup 

 twice as much of the mixture as you would do if it was pure sugar, 

 and skim the ants off the top of the tea, as you collect Joraminifera 

 from sand. 



The mosquitoes are very troublesome ; but one soon gets not to 

 mind them ; still, if sound sleep be an object, the traveller in 

 Rodrigues had better have a mosquito curtain Avith him, especially 

 from December to May. 



In spite of insect plagues and no accommodation of any civilized 

 kind, however, a visit to Rodrigues may be made a very pleasant 

 affair, either to a naturalist or a sportsman. For the former, I have 



