116 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



Nc man nor beast may rest or take repast 

 For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries, 

 Till the fierce northern wind with blustering blast 

 Doth blow thcui quite away, and in tiie ocean cast. 



In Marshland in Norfolk, as I learn from a lady 

 who had an opportunity of personal inspection, the in- 

 habitants are so annoyed by the gnats, that the better 

 sort of them, as in many hot climates, have recourse to 

 a gauze covering- for their beds, to keep them off du- 

 ring the night. Whether this practice obtains in other 

 fen districts I do not know. 



But these evils are of small account compared with 

 what other countries, especially when we approach 

 the poles or the line, are destined to suffer from lliem ; 

 for there they interfere so much Avith ease and com- 

 fort, as to become one of the Avorst of pests and a real 

 misery of human life. We may be disposed to smile 

 perhaps at the story Mr. Weld relates fi'om General 

 Washington, that in one place the mosquitos Avere so 

 powerful as to pierce through his boots'^ (probably they 

 crept Avithin the boots) : but in various regions scarcely 

 any thing less impenetrable than leather can Avithstand 

 their insinuating Aveapons and uuAvearied attacks. One 

 Avould at first imagine that regions Avhere the polar 

 winter extends its icy reign Avould not be much an- 

 noyed by insects : but hoAvever probable the supposi- 

 tion, it is the reverse of fact, for noAvhere are gnats 

 more numerous. These animals, ^s Avell as the Tipii- 

 lidce, seem endowed Avith the privilege of resisting any 

 degree of cold, and of bearing any degree of heat. In 

 Lapland their numbers are so prodigious as to be com- 



* Weld's Traveh^ 8vo edit. 205. Yet Mouffet affirms t he same : " Morsu 

 crudcles et venenatijtriplices caligas,imo ocreas, item pcrforantes." 81. 



