83 



ciously to the attack, and, notwithstanding all our efforts, manage to cover our faces, 

 necks, heads, hands and legs with their bites. Their ringing hum, which always an- 

 nounces their approach, is listened to with a feverish anxiety, and as it approaches the 

 ear, is heard with a dread and horror that is almost laughable, when we consider the 

 size of the enemy. There are two species at least, if not more, of the true musquito 

 (Culex); and besides them there is the Black Fly, a small species of dipterous fly, 

 with black body, the legs ringed with black and white (Simulia?), whose bite is simi- 

 lar in its effects to that of the musquito, but it does not usually come into our houses. 

 There is also a very minute insect, likewise dipterous, with mottled wings, the sand-fly 

 or midget, so small as to be scarcely visible : they appear in myriads at nightfall, and 

 bury their heads in the flesh ; their bite is not unlike a spark of fire, but it is not fol- 

 lowed by tumours ; a slight inflammation continues for a few minutes, with itching. 

 Neither of these two utters any sound as it approaches, so that their attack is still more 

 insidious than that of the musquito. 



" When they are too bad to be borne any longer, our housewives make what they 

 call a smudge ; that is, little fires to windward of the house, covered with wet chips 

 and earth, which, smothering the flame, make a dense smoke ; this being wafted by 

 the wind around the house, prevents the approach of the flies, as they cannot abide 

 smoke, so we tolerate one inconvenience to dispel a greater. There is no other help 

 but patience. Salt dissolved in water, rubbed on a recent bite, prevents much of the 

 evil effect. But we know little, after all, of this evil, compared with those bold and 

 hardy men who first penetrated this vast wilderness, and set up their solitary dwellings 

 in the midst of the forest, before roads were cut, or clearings made, or marshes drain- 

 ed : when clouds of venomous insects rose out of the rank swamps, to which those we 

 encounter are as nothing. I have heard some of the first settlers declare, that they 

 did not dare to go out to work without a pine torch continually blazing on their hats, 

 to keep, by its smoke and flame, a small space around their heads clear of these minute 

 but formidable foes." — p. 99. 



In June another insect torment appears, which leads our author 

 into the following observations. 



" The large Whame-flies (Tabanus) are beginning to be troublesome to the horses 

 and cattle : I have been told by surveyors and others, whose business leads them to 

 penetrate the forests far from human settlements, that these large flies are so numer- 

 ous and virulent that sometimes it is impossible to proceed. It is not uncommon for 

 persons in such circumstances to have their faces and limbs so bitten, as, with the ve- 

 nom infused, and the consequent irritation combined, to cause dangerous wounds or 

 ulcers. I have never been attacked by them myself, nor have I ever known them to 

 molest man in the open clearing in this country, except in one instance, in which one 

 of the little clouded whameflies (Chrysops sepulchralis ?) suddenly darted at the hand 

 of my brother three successive times without alighting, inflicting a wound each time: 

 it left hard whitish lumps, attended by severe pain. The mouth of these insects is a 

 fine piece of mechanism : a fleshy case contains two spiny serrated needles, and two 

 broad lancets, shaped like a knife, working laterally ; these are to cut and enlarge the 

 wound, and increase the flow of blood ; within these is a fine tube enclosed in a sepa- 

 rate sheath, through which the blood, probably diluted by some injected fluid (which 

 causes the inflammation and pain) is sucked into the stomach. The palpi are short, 



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