LIFE HISTORY AND SEASONAL PREVALENCE 113 



remained long enough to make it certain that the dissemina- 

 tion of species through the agency of steamships is by no 

 means impossible, and may be of not infrequent occurrence. 

 It was only, however, when the ship chanced to lie close to 

 the shore that she was invaded in this way. The myriads 

 of Mosquitoes that invade a ship moored alongside the bank 

 in Garden Eeach must be seen and felt to be believed, but 

 when moored " in the stream " one is left comparatively 

 at peace ; and in open ports, ships anchored at the usual 

 distance from the land remain practically free from these 

 pests. 



Another reason that makes it impossible for Mosquitoes 

 to be carried overseas any considerable distance by the wind 

 is that, whatever may be the rate of travel that they can 

 bear without injury, the entire journey must be made at 

 night, for in tropical regions shelter from the sun during 

 the day is a matter of life and death to a Mosquito, as is 

 proved by the following observation. 



In Oudh, during April, it is difficult to sleep in comfort 

 except in the open. My servant one night was careless in 

 the tucking in of the mosquito net, and when I woke in the 

 morning I found I should have done well to have imitated 

 the Irishman of the story and " crept out under the bottom 

 bar," for the net was alive with happy, satiated dames of 

 the gnat community. 



My bed, as a matter of fact, had no bottom bar, but 

 doing my best to imitate the astute Hibernian, I crept out 

 with infinite precaution, tucked in the curtains, and gave 

 directions that the bed should be left where it was. The 

 day turned out somewhat cloudy, the temperature inside 

 the net never exceeding 105° F., but by noon every Mos- 

 quito was not only dead, but bone-dry. 



For these reasons, we may I think reject, as having no 

 foundation in fact, such popular beliefs as that the swarms 

 of Mosquitoes that sometimes appear on the Persian coast, 

 have been carried by the wind 200 miles across the Gulf 

 from the Arabian shore ; albeit you must be prepared to 

 hear this belief quoted as an established fact, even by 

 European residents. 

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