GNAT. 
391 
Other parts affected by them, in many persons, 
have been swelled to an enormous size. The co- 
lour also of these parts, at the same time, was 
red and fiery, perfectly similar to that of some of 
the most alarming inflammations.” 
Air. Svvinton adds that the swarms of these ani- 
mals were observed to . ascend in columns of at 
least fifty or sixty feet in height. 
But of all the European nations that of Lap- 
land seems to be the greatest sufferer from these 
vexatious animals, which, during the heats of the 
short summer, fill the air with such swarming 
myriads, that the poor inhabitants can hardly 
venture to walk out of their cabins, without 
having first smeared their hands and faces with a 
composition of tar and cream, which is found by 
experience to prevent their attacks. Yet even 
this seemingly unfavourable circumstance may be 
considered, in another point of view, as constitut- 
ing one of the advantages of the country, being, 
in the expressive w'ords of Linnaeus “ Lapponnm 
calamitas J'dlcissima since the legions of larvae 
which fill the lakes of Lapland form a delicious 
and tempting repast to innumerable multitudes of 
aquatic birdsj and thus contribute to the support 
of the very nation which they so strangely infest. 
It may be added that the formidable insect 
called the Musquito, so much dreaded by the in- 
habitants of the West-Indies, and America, where 
its bite seems to operate Avith peculiar malignity, 
is supposed to be no other than a variety of the 
common European Gnat, which derives additional 
