174 BLACK-FLIES. 



Such tormenters are also exceedingly annoying in the 

 northern part of Minnesota, and especially near Lake Su- 

 perior. "Neither the love of the picturesque, however, nor 

 the interests of science, could tempt us into the woods, so 

 terrible were the black flies. This pest of flies which all the 

 way hither had confined our ramblings on shore pretty 

 closely to the rocks and the beach, and had been growing 

 constantly worse and worse, here reached its climax. 

 Although detained nearly two da^-s, yet we could only sit 

 with folded hands, or employ ourselves in arranging speci- 

 mens, and such other occupations as could be pursued in 

 camp, and under protection of a "smudge-" One, whom 

 scientific ardor tempted a little way up the river in a canoe, 

 after water plants, came back a frightful spectacle, with 

 blood-red rings round his eyes, his face bloody and covered 

 with punctures. The next morning his head and neck were 

 swollen as if from an attack of erysipelas." 



The above quotation, from "Lake Superior" by Louis 

 Agassiz, applies equally w^ell today to the same locality', as 

 experienced by such energetic entomologists as N. G. Hub- 

 bard and E. A. Schwartz, who tried in vain to collect insects 

 while black flies were out in force. 



Nor do such flies exist only in the north; they are as 

 blood-thirstj'^ in southern regions, and whoever has trav- 

 eled in the tropics will have some very painful recollections 

 of these pests, which are there usually called "sand-flies." In 

 the southern part of the Mississippi Yailey cattle, horses, 

 mules, and even fowls suffer terribly and many are killed 

 outright. The common Buffalo Gnat {Simullum meridlonale 

 Ril.) is a very large species which appears more or less sud- 

 denly in large numbers, and as they gorge themselves with 

 the blood of animals, these soon succumb. The loss of 

 blood, together with the terrible irritation of the skin 

 caused by the poison injected, is sufficient to kill in a very 

 short time even such proverbially tough animals as the 

 mule. All domesticated animals know this their worst 

 enemy, and try to escape, but usually in vain, as the attack 

 is always made very suddenly and unexpectedly. Farmers 

 in the region infested by such gnats resort to smudges, 



