With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



Certain kinds of stinging-flies are very prevalent 

 during their swarming season. The ihes and dragon- 

 thes of East Africa have, for the most part, been but 

 little investigated. From my last tour alone, I was able 

 to bring home two new kinds of stinging-flies, hitherto 

 entirely unknown. Undoubtedly the most distressing for 

 human beings is the tsetse-fly, which is positively fatal 

 to horses, mules, and asses, and which appears at a 

 certain time of the year. I cannot confirm the idea that 

 certain parts of the velt are free from the tsetse-fly. 

 Though the high plains are free from it, I found the 

 tsetse remarkably prevalent in localities where it had 

 not hitherto been suspected, especially by the Pangani 

 River in March and April. 



A traveller whom 1 know told me that he once slept 

 in his tent in the daytime with an open wound in his 

 arm, and the day after found fly-maggots in it — an 

 experience, certainly, that I have never had myself. 



Troublesome and somewhat frequent visitors to the 

 tent are scorpions. Their virulence is much e.\aggerated, 

 though their sting always has some disagreeable results. 

 One of my carriers delighted in putting big scorpions, 

 which he used to catch, upon his shaven head, and 

 letting them move about there for some time, amidst 

 the laughter ot his comrades ! 



The traveller often suffers much inconvenience from 

 white ants. If I happened to stay in a camping-place for 

 any length of time, I often found that, even after a few 

 days, the bottoms of my travelling-cases would be destroyed 

 by white ants ! Once, ants ate away in this fashion a 



662 



