DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED B\ INSECTS. 115 



Till the fierce northern wind with blust'ring blast 

 Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast. 



In Marshland in Norfolk, as I learn from a lady who 

 had an opportunity of personal inspection, the inhabi- 

 tants are so annoyed by the gnats, that the better sort of 

 them, as in many hot climates, have recourse to a gauze 

 covering for their beds, to keep them off during the night. 

 Whether this practice obtains in other fen districts I do 

 not know. 



But these evils are of small account compared with 

 what other countries, especially when we approach the 

 poles or the line, are destined to suffer from them ; for 

 there they interfere so much with ease and comfort, as 

 to become one of the worst of pests and a real misery of 

 human life. We may be disposed to smile perhaps at 

 the story Mr. Weld relates from General Washington, 

 that in one place the mosquitos were so powerful as to 

 pierce through his boots* (probably they crept within 

 the boots) : but in various regions scarcely any thing 

 less impenetrable than leather can withstand their in- 

 sinuating weapons and unwearied attacks. One would 

 at first hnagine that regions where the polar winter ex- 

 tends its icy reign would not be much annoyed by in- 

 sects : but however probable the supposition, it is the 

 reverse of fact, for nowhere are gnats more numerous. 

 These animals, as well as numbers of the Tipularicc of 

 Latreille, seem endowed with the privilege of resisting 

 any degree of cold, and of bearing any degree of heat. 

 In Lapland their numbers are so prodigious as to be 



» Weld's Travels, 8vo. edit. 205. Yet MoufFct affirms the same : 

 " Morsu crudeles et venenati, triplices caligas, imo ocrcas, item per- 

 forantes." 81. 



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