our much-esteemed and noble-hearted friend, the late Admiral
Washington, at home to see that we did not again
suffer; but the prospect of effecting a grand work on Lake
Nyassa, by means of a steamer, made to be unscrewed and
carried past the cataracts, was so fair,—--indeed it promised, if
carried out, so entirely to change the wretched system, which
has been the bane of the country for ages,—that to haye
the vessel properly constructed we sent Mr. Eae, the engineer,
home to superintend its construction. He could be of no
further use in the “ Asthmatic,” as she was utterly beyond
cure. We sent also five boxes of specimens, carefully collected
and prepared by Dr. Kirk; four of them, to our very
great sorrow and loss, never arrived at the Gardens at
Kew. We all accompanied our engineer on foot to a
small stream that runs into the Kwakwa, or river of Quil-
limane, on his way to that port to embark for England,
The distance from Mazaro, on the Zambesi side, to
the Kwakwa at Nterra, is about six miles, over a surprisingly
rich dark soil. We passed the night in the
long shed, erected at Nterra, on the banks of this river, for
the use of travellers, who have often to wait several days
for canoes; we tried to sleep, but the mosquitoes and rats
were so troublesome as to render sleep impossible. The
rats, or rather large mice, closely resembling Mm pumilio
(Smith), of this region, are quite facetious, and, having a great
deal of fun in them, often laugh heartily. Again and again
they woke us up by scampering over our faces, and then
bursting into a loud laugh of H e ! h e ! h e ! at having performed
the feat. Their sense of the ludicrous appears to
be exquisite; they screamed with laughter at the attempts,
which disturbed and angry human nature made in the dark
to bring their ill-timed merriment to a close. Unlike their
prudent European cousins, which are said to leave-, a sinking
ship, a party of these took up their quarters in our leaky
and sinking vessel. Quiet and invisible by day, they emerged
at night, and cut their funny pranks. No sooner were we all
asleep, than they made a sudden dash over the lockers and
across ora faces for the cabin door, where all broke out into
a loud H e ! h e ! h e ! h e ! h e ! h e ! showing how keenly they
enjoyed the joke. They next went forward with as much
delight, and scampered over the men. Every night they went
fore and aft, rousing with impartial feet every sleeper, and
laughing to scorn the aimless blows, growls, and deadly rushes
of outraged humanity. We observed elsewhere, a species of
large mouse, nearly allied to JEuryotis unimlcatm (F. Cuvier),
escaping up a rough and not very upright wall, with six yoUng
ones firmly attached to the perineum. They were old enough
to be well covered with hair, and some were not detached by
a blow which disabled the dam. We could not decide whether
any involuntary muscles were brought into play, in helping
the young to adhere. Their weight seemed to require a sort
of cataleptic state of the muscles of the jaw, to enable them
to hold on.
Scorpions, centipedes, and poisonous spiders also, were not
unfrequently brought into the ship with the wood, and occasionally
found their way into ora beds; but, in every
instance, we were fortunate enough to discover and destroy
them, before they did any harm. Naval officers on this coast
report, that when scorpions and centipedes remain a few
weeks after being taken on board in a similar manner, their
poison loses nearly all its virulence, but this we did not verify.
Snakes sometimes came in with the wood, but oftener floated
down the river to us, climbing on board with ease by the
cnain-cable, and some poisonous ones were caught in the