178 
BLUEFIELDS. 
the nits would escape into the wound, and produce a 
dreadful ulcer; such, however, is the skill of the 
sable practitioners, that it very rarely occurs. The 
negroes talk of two kinds, the White and the Poison 
Jigger. Mine was of the latter kind ; and therefore 
a little grease was rubbed into the empty cavity, 
after the operation. 
The insect, when removed, on being subjected to 
examination with a lens, greatly resembles a dis- 
tended Tick {Ixodes) ; white and shining ; there is 
this dissimilarity, however, that whereas in a Tick 
the little feet are pushed apart in the process of dis- 
tension, and are scattered widely around the swollen 
abdomen, in the Jigger they remain close together in 
the centre ; in other words, the skin of the abdomen 
between the bases of the feet is expansible in the 
former, and not in the latter. The feet sprawl help- 
lessly after extraction. 
The presence of a Jigger beneath the skin, during 
the process of its gradual increase, is commonly de- 
scribed as a titillation, rather pleasing than painful. 
This does not at all agree with my experience. I on 
no occasion felt any itching, but, as soon as I became 
conscious of any sensation at all, a dull pain with 
tension, somewhat like the rising of a small boil, 
which increased until the cause was removed by 
extraction. 
THE SMOOTH SHEATH-CLAW. 
June Srd, — Coming down from Bluefields Peak 
about noon, my attention was attracted to two of 
