134 DRAGON FLIES VS. MOSQUITOES. 



Territory at the end of July ; I did not see any of the 

 " hawks." I heard from time to time that mosquitoes were 

 very thick there, but how long they stayed, or whether 

 these dragon flies appeared or not, I do not know. 



I am sorry I cannot make a more scientific account 

 than this, but between an epidemic of measles that broke 

 out in the post about that time — ^and as the post surgeon 

 was away I had all I could do to attend to the cases — 

 and a number of other things that occurred, my letter is 

 simply a " recollection." Of this I am certain, that for a 

 time head nets, mosquito bars, and the best way of mak- 

 hm " smudoes " were about all I could think of, and 

 that on and after the appearance of these " mosquito 

 hawks " the above mentioned articles sank into an " in- 

 nocuous desuetude." 



They might be bred in the East, but they are an er- 

 ratic insect. As I said before, they do not appear every 

 " mosquito year," and it was just my good fortune that I 

 happened to see them. Officers w^ho were with me in 

 that garrison, who had been stationed there years before, 

 told me that it was almost worth a man's life to attempt 

 to walk up to Fort ISIcKean (a small infantry post on 

 the foothills behind Fort Lincoln), not so much from the 

 Sioux, as from what they (the officers) termed the Sioux's 

 allies — the mosquitoes. 



To De. R. H. Lamborn, New York. 

 Philadelphia, Pa., 22d January, 1889. 



