— 108 
" The means now adopted are only those employed from 
time immemorial, in India, Ceylon, &c., namely, the old wooden 
mill on the pestle and mortar principle worked by an ox. By 
this miserably clumsy appliance nearly half the oil is lost. It 
takes onecwt. of “ coperee ” to make 4 velts (40 wine bottles) 
cf oil, with proper mills and suitable presses, at least 7 velts 
nrght be obtained from the same amount.” The cocoa nut 
tree is certainly the greatest boon ever bestowed on a t'opical 
climate, from its numerous uses, and as I have observed before» 
it should be planted wherever one will grow, and not only 
here but in Mauritius also. Why the culture of so useful a 
tree, not to speak of its beauty should be utterly neglected in 
Mauritius I know not. It is one of those enigmas yet to be 
solved. 
“ To go back to Frigate island, after seeing a good deal of 
the place, I soon began hunting about the bushes, but I was 
warned by Mr Savy to beware of the scorpions and spiders, 
especially a large species of the latter, which is abundant, and 
its bite venomous. He told me that when the men went to work 
in the fields they took a small phial of concentrated ammonia 
with them, as these spiders attack them by springing on them 
a9 the Epeiras do on their prey. Sometimes the bite when 
not promptly attended to will cause death or long illness, but 
even when dressed at once with ammonia, the victim is laid up 
for 8 or 10 days. The poison induces vomiting, cramps, and 
swelling of the whole body. This same spider is also at Mahe 
and I saw an American on Mr Sedgewick’a Estate who was 
bitten by a spider while asleep, and he had been in bed for some 
weeks. It did not however appear to me as common there as 
at Frigate Island. I found them amongst husks of cocoauuts 
and dry leaves, and succeeded in bottliug a number. It was 
with the greatest difficuhy I could get the Mozambiques to come 
near me when they saw I had caught some. In brushing over 
some dead leaves for a Scincus new to me, a spider jumped out 
at them, and they ran for dear life as if a tiger was after 
them ; no inducement could make them help me put them in 
the bottle of alcohol. 
“ This spider belongs to the genus Phryrim, and resembles 
