14 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



" In recapitulating the observations just indicated, we see that in the tropics 

 these insects do not extend upon the slope of the Cordilleras toward the tem- 

 perate region where the mean heat is below 19 to 20 degrees C. ; that with only 

 a few exceptions they avoid rivers with black waters, and dry and deforested 

 localities. On the upper Orinoco the atmosphere swarms with them much 

 more than on the lower Orinoco, because in the first region the river is bordered 

 by thick forests and because the borders of the forest are not separated from 

 the river by extensive arid plains. With the diminution of water and the de- 

 struction of the woods the mosquitos will diminish in the new world; but the 

 effects of these changes are as slow as the progress of agriculture. The towns of 

 Angostura, of Nueva Barcelona, and of Mompox, where, by a lack of police 

 supervision, the streets, the squares, and the interior of the courts are covered 

 with brush, are sadly celebrated for their abundance of zancudos. 



" The people born in the country, whether they are whites, mulattoes, negroes, 

 or Indians, all suffer from the bite of these insects ; but, just as the extreme cold 

 does not render the north of Europe uninhabitable, the mosquitos do not deter 

 men from establishing themselves in countries where they abound if these 

 countries, by their situation and their government, offer resources to agriculture 

 and to industry. The inhabitants pass their lives complaining of the plague, of 

 the insufferable torment of flies ; but, in spite of these continual complaints, they 

 none the less seek by preference the commercial cities of Mompox, of Santa 

 Marta, and of Eio la Hacha. Such is the power of adaptation to evils con- 

 tinually suffered, that the three missions of San Borja, of Atures, and of Es- 

 meralda, where, to use the hyperbolical expression of the friars, there is less 

 air than mosquitoes, would become, without doubt, flourishing cities if the 

 Orinoco offered to the colonists the same advantages for exchange of productions 

 as the Ohio and the lower Mississippi. The abundance of venomous insects 

 retards but does not entirely stop the progress of population ; it does not prevent 

 the whites from establishing themselves there where the commercial and politi- 

 cal condition of the country promises real advantage. . . ." 



[Here follows an account of the chigoe (Sarcopsylla penetrans)'\ : 



" One of the most barbarous of the tribes of the Orinoco, the Otomaques, 

 know the use of mosquito bars made of palm fibers. We have seen that at 

 Higuerote the people of color sleep covered with earth. In the villages of the 

 River Magdalena the Indians often invited us to lie down with them under the 

 skins of cattle, near the church, in the middle of the plaza, where they brought 

 together all the cows of the vicinity. The proximity of the cattle gave some 

 repose to the men. The Indians of the upper Orinoco and of the Cassiquiare, 

 seeing that Monsieur Bonpland could not prepare his plants on account of the 

 continual torment of mosquitos, made him enter their ovens or hornitos. Thus 

 they call their little rooms without doors or windows, which they enter on their 

 bellies through a very low opening ; then by a fire of damp brush which produces 

 much smoke they succeed in driving out the insects through the opening. The 

 absence of mosquitos is purchased very dearly by the excessive heat of the 

 stagnant air and by the smoke of the torch of copal which lights the oven while 

 one remains in it. Monsieur Bonpland dried, with a courage and a patience 

 worthy of eulogy, hundreds of plants, shut up in these bake-houses of the 

 indians. 



" The pains which the natives take in order to lessen the annoyance by insects 

 sufficiently proves that, in spite of the different organization of the dermal 

 system, the copper-colored man is as susceptible to the bites of mosquitoes as 

 the white man, but, as we have elsewhere stated, the pain appears less great and 

 the bite is not followed by the swelling which follows without interruption 



