Vol. xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS l6l 



"Statement of William Turner Jackson : 



"William Turner Jackson, a Pitt River Indian now living 

 near Yainax, Oregon, says that he saw this fly forty or more 

 years ago, when he was a mere boy, in great quantities on a 

 mountain side about eight or ten miles northeast from the 

 postoffice or village of Lookout, in Modoc County, California. 

 It seems that these flies, according to his statements, would 

 gather at or near the head of a small canyon through which 

 flowed a small stream of water. He never saw them at any 

 other place in quantities and if one would go a quarter of a 

 mile from this point in any direction there would be practically 

 no flies. These flies gathered there some time in the month of 

 May, and could be gathered by the tons. The trees, bushes and 

 rocks were covered with them in places to the depth of five or 

 six inches. Hence it was no trouble to gather them, for they 

 could be scraped off the rocks and trees into great heaps. They 

 would alight on the Indians until they were literally covered 

 with them. 



"The time of gathering them was in the cool of the morn- 

 ing when they were all settled and too cold to fly. In the heat 

 of the day the air would be so filled with them as to exclude 

 the sun and one could see but a short distance. (Where the 

 flies came from and where they went to from this place is not 

 known by the Indians who gave me this version of the inci- 

 dent.— J. A. G.) 



"Indian Jackson also says that the flies were gathered in 

 great quantities and prepared for food. 



"A large pit was dug in the ground and the same materials 

 used in constructing the oven as those mentioned in the Ben 

 Lawver statement. But before the flies were put into the 

 oven they were dumped into large baskets and mashed up and 

 kneaded like a housewife works her paste when preparing to 

 bake bread. The mass is made into loaves like bread and 

 placed in the oven side by side. There may be a half dozen 

 or more layers of these loaves in one oven with the hot stones 

 between the layers. A great quantity could be cooked or 

 baked in one oven in this manner. When this product was 

 baked and dried it could be sliced from the loaf and used as 

 food. 



