1")7 



We learned from people residing along this stream, that in 18S2 the gnats 

 occurred as far up as Jasper, Dubois county, and several mules and horses, 

 in the vicinity of Bovine, Pike county, died from the effects of being bitten 

 by gnats. Usually, however, the insects did not occur in that vicinity in 

 any considerable numbers. 



At Hazleton, on White River, in Gibson county, Dr. P. H. Curtner in- 

 formed me that gnats had appeared, with more or less regularity, every sea- 

 son for the last seventeen years, being very much more abundant in seasons 

 of high water during spring time. Localities between Hazleton and the 

 Wabash River were especially noted for the great numbers of gnats occur- 

 ring there. Dr. Curtner's facts are of especial value, as he has had several 

 years' experience with buffalo gnats in Louisiana, during the war, having 

 been connected with a battery of Federal artillery. 



A quite significant fact was noticed, in that wherever the insects were 

 reported as being the most abundant, the stream was very tortuous, thereby 

 presenting many narrow points of bottom-land, more or less covered with 

 trees and underbrush, across which the water flows whenever the stream is 

 very much swollen. Lumbermen, who are much on the river, say that 

 where the bottoms have been cleared, gnats are not usually abundant. 



Like the Patoka, White River has rather a sluggish current. At Hazle- 

 ton, the latter is estimated to flow at the rate of about six miles per hour 

 in ordinary high water ; during low water it is much less. 



The following letter adds much to a knowledge of the distribution of 

 buffalo gnats in southwestern Indiana : 



"Makco, Ind., December 21st, 1886. 



"Mr. F. M. Webster, Dear Sir : — I am somewhat acquainted with buf 

 falo gnats. I first find them on the head waters of a stream called River De- 

 Shee, and also on W'ilson Creek, in the southern part of Harrison township, 

 Ivnox county, southeast of Vincennes. They are not so much in the White 

 River bottoms as they are in the low, marshy land adjoining said b ^tt >ms. 

 I find them in said township, further north, in the vicinity of a low, slug- 

 gish creek, called Pond Creek. Where the high lands come near the river, 

 I find none until I get above Eiiwardsport, at the mouth of Black Creek ; 

 but following that creek in Greene county, I find them abundant in low, 

 wet land that makes and adjoins said creek, to-wit: Cain Drain, or Dela- 

 ware Creek, a large mareh in Knox county, Carico Marsh, the Goose Pond, 

 Bee Hunter Marsh, and Ladies' Creek Marshes, all in Greene county. In 

 the bottoms, on the west side of White River, you will find plenty of them ; 

 but above Worthington they have never been known, so far as I have 

 heard. 



