Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-10-23

meets face to face on the Wal. by his
door, huge centipede ambling along
he decides in favor of the less active
cactus. The ceatipede of this region
sometimes grows to be eight inches
long. and is then an inch wide His
legs, twenty on a side, or forty in all,
in place of one hundred, as its name
would imply, move with a peculiar,
undulating motion like the oars of an
ancient galley, and the beasts livid
green and brown colors and long
shining feelers projecting in front
give it hideous appearance. A friend
of the writer's investigated The legend
that these insects have poison ct the
point of each foot, so that in crawling
over ones flesh they leave sting
wherever they put foot down. He
found this to be untrue by letting sew
eral of them run across his arm and
chest, but when he picked up large
one on his fingers the centipede sunk
his fangs into his hand and wrist sew
eral times, and my friends arm be-
came very badly swollen ard dark
colored in a short time. A strong
ligature stopped the swelling near the
shoulder, ard the wounds were cauter-
lied, but the victim spent two weeks
of great suffering before he recover
ed.
The tarantula is also common ami
NAL in the southern part of Arizona,
and. like the ceptipede, it frequently
enters houses and tents, especially
during the rainy season in July and
August A huge specimen taken by
the writer from a tuft of grass one
morning, within a yard of where his
head laid curing the night, is about
five inches long, and its outstretched
legs cover a space nearly the size of
ones hand This WAS taken south of
Tucson, and is different from the
tarantula of California and more
Iorthern parts of Arizona. To one
afraid of spiders, huge, hairy spider,
nve or six inches long, is a veritable
horror, but they are very sluggish
animals, and, unless very susceptible
to the poison, one would not risk
death by being bitten by one, in spite
of the common opinion that their bite
is deadly.
One of the most hideous of the
strange forms that nature has turned
loose ia this delectable land, is the
ella monster. This is lizard about
fifteen or twenty inches long, with
thick, rounded, club shaped tail,
clumsy body and large rounded head,
with huge mouth and twlnkllng
eyes. They are black and yellow, in
variegated patches, and the entire
body is covered with small, irregular
warty lunps This queer looking
beast has the distinction of being the
only lizard in North America having
poison fangs and glands. Careful
dissection has proved that they have
these in the roof of their mouths.
They are called "spitters' by the MeXi
cans, who have all manner of queer
ideas regarding them. The monster
has habit of blowing frothy spittle
out of its mouth when annoyed, and
the MeXlcans, in common with many
of the Americans, claim that if they
blow this spittle upon ones skin it is
deadly poison The Mexicans in
one part of the CHA valley claim that
if this lizard blows upon a virgin she
, will at once become enceinte In some
districts belief of this kind becomes
quite useful Although irritable at
/
and never attempt to make use of
their poison apparatus. One gentle
man in Utah writes that his children
have made a pet of one for long
time, and he could not prevail upon
it to bite. A lady in Tucson has had
one for pet for year or more. 1t
was perfectly tame, and she had a
habit OF carrying it aboHt town ia her
arms, or in little basket, as some
ladies do small lapdogs AS might be
supposed, its presence was greater
pleasure to its owner than to the
friends upon whom she called with
the bizarre pet. This unique lizard is
found in the southern part of Utah
and Nevada, and thence south in the
lower part of Arizona, always fire.
quenting the hottest part of these
ranges.
To the camping party in Arizona all
of these things become a matter of
course, and he gazes at them as com
placently as he does upon the empty
cans and beer bottles that mark the
footsteps of the vanguard of civiliza
ton everywhere ON the plains.