How Far Mosquitoes Fly 45 



was, being followed by a mosquito swarm for more 

 than five miles across an open stretch of water. The 

 specimens were not in the launch much of the time, 

 because every effort was made to drive them out 

 and keep them on the wing, which, as the boat was 

 small, was an easy matter. Five or six miles an 

 hour against an ordinary wind, or nearly double 

 that when with a mild wind, he considers quite with- 

 in the range of sollicitans or cantator. 



Any one may observe for himself how the insects 

 will swarm about and follow a walking person, or a 

 moving vehicle. The slight draught occasioned by 

 the movement of the object followed no doubt often 

 somewhat helps the insects along, but when the 

 breeze is at all strong this would, of course, count 

 for nothing. I have seen a swarm follow a launch 

 from one side of the Mississippi to the other at 

 Baton Rouge, with the wind blowing down the 

 river. The notion that mosquitoes are carried and 

 distributed by air currents is a most popular and con- 

 venient excuse for not searching for a near-by and 

 concealed breeding-place. I have been assured that 

 the mosquitoes troubling a city house were brought 

 by the wind from a marshy field about a mile away, 

 whereas the fact was, that they were breeding in an 

 old derby hat and a couple of tin cans lodged be- 

 tween two outbuildings not two hundred feet away. 

 On the removal of the rubbish the trouble ceased. 



Dr. Stiles, who has a summer cottage on the 

 Jersey coast, is inclined to the view that a steady 

 "land breeze" will spread mosquitoes seaward, as 

 they appear after, and only after, several days of 



