THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP THEM OFF. 117 



presents I never beheld, covered literally and 

 truly from head to heel with sand-flies. Each of 

 these little harpies looks pink. Their skins, 

 stretched to a state of transparency, reveals the 

 colour of the fluid they are gorged with. You 

 would not know that it was a mule if you 

 stumbled by accident on it, so fearfully is poor 

 Johnson swollen from the poisoned punctures. 

 We did all we could to relieve his sufferings, lit 

 a fire, and smoked off the flies, washed and greased 

 him, but all to no purpose. About two hours 

 after he was brought in, he died. Who would 

 have dreamed such pigmies could kill a powerful 

 mule in two or three hours ! 



The only plan of protecting yourself and your 

 animals is to light large smouldering fires so as 

 to produce voluminous clouds of smoke. This 

 the brulots are unable to stand ; the poor animals 

 know it, and crowd round the smoking embers, 

 hustling one another in their anxiety to be the 

 nearest. The Indians all adopt this method, and 

 wherever Indian horses are grazing in summer 

 time, immense fallen trees that are sufficiently 

 dry to burn are lighted from end to end, and round 

 these all day long the horses crowd. At night the 

 sand-flies give but little trouble, and, like sensible 

 insects, take a few hours' repose. Most appro- 



