Morning journal and courier., 1885-05-26
The scorpion and oentfpede.


 The scorpion is very much smaller than the tarantula, much ivelier and not much handsomer. There are thousand scorpions, suppose, to one tarantula, and their bite is fully as bad. I must confess to having had very vague idea about the scorpion before becoming acquainted with the tropics. think if I had been driven to it I should have described him creature with wings, black and somewhere about the size of humming bird This would have been about
 as inaccurate description be- imag ined He has no wings, he is not black, and he is nowhere near the size of even half grown humming- bird. There is an imagina- " picture of him in all the almanacs, but it doesn't look very much like him-that sign of the zodiac. Referring once more to Mr. Webster to see how my experience compares with an authoritative description of him.
 find that he is "a pedipalpous, pulmonary arachnidan, of the genus scorpio," and am glad to learn of course that he is @ pedipal- pous. Anybody would be a pedipa1pous who would take hold of one of them if he could help it. But nobody ever does. We hear of snake charmers and lion tanners, and trainers of wild beasts in general; but did anybody ever hear of man fooling unneces- sarily with scorpion? A full-grown scorpi- on is from two to two and one half inches long, and his color is sort of ashy gray. He has eight legs, upon all of which minute hairs grow and his tail is much longer than there is any necessity for, considering the size of his body. The tail is, in fact, only a continuation of his body, and I have inclu- ded that in measuring his length. It is at the end of his tail that he carries his ven- omous sting, and when he curls up his body into semi-cirele and brings that lively end of his tail to bear upon an enemy the enemy cannot drop him too soon. His body is no- where as thick as 8 lead pencil but at the head it branches out into claws or horns, or l.. |. ..aI-o 41 aa1I them; so that in shape he is something like a tack hammer. He is shaped very much like hammer headed shark, only hammer-head- ed sharks are not familiar enough in north ern waters to serve for an illustration. He is creature of mold and slime like the snail. Let an old box lie on the ground, particular ly in moist place, till the bottom boards begin to decay, and your scorpion trap is ready. When you want your game lift up your box and there is your scorpion. But be careful to take hold of the box near the top and not get your fingers in his way. For the scorpion is very rapid in his motions, and he will give you sting before you know it. When he strikes you with the end of his tail, like wasp he exudes 8 venomous liquid,
 and man might better hold red-hot iron in his hand than get the tenth part of drop
 of this liquid into his blood. It is not
 necessarily fatal, particularly in the Baha-
 mas: but it condenses the heat of forty fur
 
 scorpion bites are frequently fatal, but
 have not heard of anyone having been killed
 by them in Nassau This is easily accounted
 for The scorpion likes to feed on decaying
 wood In South America, where dye-woods
 and other poisonous woods abound, the SCOT
 pions feed upon them, and thus work into
 themselves a good supply of outside poison,
 which, taken together with his naturally poi
 sonous liquid, does it's work for whoever is
 unfortunate enough to be stung. But in
 Nassau such poisonous woods are few, and
 the scorpions have to fatten themselves re-
 specially on pine, cedar and mahogany.
 They never attack anybody unless disturbed.
 The centipede is much larger than the
 scorpion and think even more to be dread
 ed. He grows sometimes to be six or eight
 inches long, but is slim and rather fat. He,
 too, travels very fast Che ought to, he has
 legs enough), and he scratches rather than
 bites, leaving an ugly mark wherever he sets
 in one of his numberless claws. Like the
 scorpion, he lives under boards or stones or
 at the bottom of old walls. He is made up
 all in joints like a tapeworm, and each joint
 has either two or four legs. 1 never exam
 ined one closely enough to see exactly which,
 for, even after they are all cut into bits, the
 pieces have an unpleasant habit of wiggling
 themselves about They say about them
 here that a centipede will not die before dark
 no matter how much you cut him up; but
 think that tstory will do to go with the yarn
 about snakes having the same bad habit. I
 have cut up few dozens of them with hoes
 here in Nassau that am sure died before I
 was through with them. When say in Mas
 sau mean here at Waterloo, which is a mile
 and half out of town. These insects are
 rarely seen in the city, and American visitors often complain that they have to go home
 without a sight of any of them. The centl- | pede's poison lies in his claws. There IS 8 bent and very sharp claw at the end of eaen l.. oI> tho gets one of these claws into you he quickly pulls himself up upon your hand, or whatever
 r rest have talked with people who have ] been poisoned by centipedes, and they de scribe the sensation as anything put pleas, l legs. but he has great many and makes them all count.