, 1886-04-13
AAaIrs o. vEnoMous sooaploNs.


A Very Dangerous Inhabitant Of the
BahAmas-A Scorpion Trap.
must confess 70 having had a very
vague idea about the scorpion before
becoming acquainted with the tropics. /
think IL / had beer driven to it / should
have described him as a creature with
wings, black, and somewhere about the
sizelo a humming-bird. This would
have been about az inaccurate a descrip-
ton as can be imagined. lie has 10
wings. he Is not black, and he is nowhere
near the size OF even a half-grown hum
ming-bird. There is IN imaginary pict-
ure Of him In all almanacs, but il
doesn't look very much like him--that
sign Of the zodiac.
A full-grown scorpion Is from two to
two-and-a-half inches long and his color
Is a sort Of ashy gray. He has eight
legs, upon all Of which minute hair
grows. and his tail is much longer than
there is any necessity for. considering
the size Of his body, and I have included
that in measuring his length. II is at the
end Of his tail that he carries his venom
GUS sting, and when he curls up bis body
into a semi-circle, and brings that lively
end Of his tail to ear upon an enemy,
the enemy can not drop him too
His body is nowhere as thick as a lead
pencil, but at the head it branches out
into claws, or horns, or additional legs,
whichever you like TO call them; so that
in shape lie is somewhat like a tack-ham-
mer. lie is shaped very much like a
hammer-headed shark, only hammer
1911 .L--t. - ii. l.
northern waters to serve for ar illustra-
ton. He is a creature of mold and
slime, like the snail. Let an old box
lie on the ground. particularly in a
moist place, till the bottom boards begin
to decay, and your scorpion trap is
ready.
When you want your game lift up the
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
movements, and he will give you a sting
before you know it. When he strikes
you with the end of his tail, like a wasp,
he oxudes a liquid, and a man
might better hold a red-hot iron in his
hand than get the tenth part of a drop
of this liquid into his blood. 1t is not
necessarily fatal, particularly in the Bahia
mas, but 1t condenses the heat of forty
furnaces.
In some parts of South America scor-
pion bites are frequently fatal, but have
not heard Of anyone being killed by them
in Nassau. This is easily accounted for.
The scorpion likes to feed upon decaying
wood. In South America, where dye
woods and other poisonous woods
abound, the scorpions feed upon them,
and thus work into themselves a good
supply of outside poison, which, taken
together with his naturally poisonous
liquid, does its work for whoever is I'M
fortunate enough to be stung. But in
Nassau such poisonous woods are few,
and the scorpions have to fatten them
selves respectfully on pine, cedar and ma
hogany.
They never attack anybody unless dis
turbed. But IL a barefoot boy steps on
one, or il you pick up a stone or a board
with one lying under it, he will sting you
If he can, and he will do it on very short
notice, 90. l have seen a decaying board
picked up that had three or four scorpi-
ons laying under it. Nobody ever thinks
of letting one escape in this part Of the
world if he can help it. The same feel
ing that sailors have about sharks. people
in tropical countries have about all these
venomous insects. Just as we always try
to kill a snake in the north, a southerner
always trys to kill a taranrula, a scorpion
or a centipede. - Boston Commercial
Bulletin.