STUDY XII. 427 



st venemous, that when they fix on any one, they 

 " feem to dart a (haft of fire into the blood. 



" The poor wretches arefo grievoufly tormented 

 " with thofe formidable infe&s, when it does not 

 * c blow, that they become like lepers ; and I can 

 " affirm it as a ferious truth, for I know it from 

 ** my own experience, that it is no flight evil to 

 iC be attacked by them ; for, befides their pre* 

 ct venting all reft in the night-time, when we were 

 ic obliged to trudge along, with our backs naked 

 " for want of fnïrts, the unceafing perfecution of 

 " thofe mercilefs little animals drove us almoft to 

 u madnefs and defpair *. 



It is, I am difpofed to believe, on account of 

 the troublefomenefs of the flies, which are very 

 common, and very neceflary, in the marfhy and 

 humid places of hot countries, that Nature has 

 placed but few quadrupeds with hair, on their 

 mores, but quadrupeds with fcales, as the tatou, 

 the armadillo, the tortoife, the lizard, the crocodile, 

 the cayman, the land-crab, bernard-the-hermit, 

 and other fcaly reptiles, fuch as ferpents, upon 

 which the flies have not the means of fattening. It 

 is, perhaps, for this reafon, likewife, that hogs and 

 wild-boars, which take pleafure in frequenting 



* Journal of a Voyage to the South-Sea in 1688. 



fuch 



