DRAGON FLIES AS MOSQUITO HAWKS ON 

 THE WESTERN PLAINS. 



The following letter from an officer in the United 

 States Army gives valuable information as to the good 

 service rendered by dragon flies against the mosquitoes 

 of our Western States : — 



In the summer of 18S5 I was on duty at Fort 

 Abraham Lincoln, Dakota. The post is on the Missouri 

 River, west side, about six miles below Bismarck. On 

 my arrival I was told long yarns about the thickness of 

 the mosquitoes. 



I was not inclined to believe them, as I had served 

 on that river before and had not been troubled at all, 

 except Mullen I went into the brush on the bank. However, 

 the " yarns " were more than fulfilled towards the latter 

 part of June. People who went up the river to Fort 

 Buford and above — nearly five hundred miles — told the 

 same story. The pests were so thick that I could hear 

 the horses and mules in the Quartermaster's corral crying 

 from irritation. Both in the officers' quarters and the en- 

 listed men's barracks, thick "smudges," made by burning 

 half dried grass, were the only things that rendered our 

 quarters inhabitable. On the target range during the end 

 of June and about three weeks in July I could not stay, 

 unless I had on heavy boots — such as are used out there 

 for riding, thick trousers, leather gauntlets, and a thick 

 "cache nez" tucked under my helmet and collar of my 



tunic. 



(131) 



