22 TA EPIZOA. 



life, for they lived in a stoppered glass bottle, without a particle 

 of nourishment, until the seventh of May, when the last speci- 

 men departed for the "happy hunting grounds." They were on 

 the poor caribou in thousands, and must have made his life miser- 

 able. When the skin was hung over a clothes-line and .beaten 

 the snow was covered with them, and the hair was scratched jofi' 

 the skill in spots by tiie aniiuars horns in his efforts t(» get rid of 

 them. , . . . . 



Regarding another variety, the American wood 

 tick, Meinherr Kalni states they were found in the woods the 

 whole summer through, on bushes and plants growing among 

 the bushes,' but more i3articularly on the fallen leaves of the 

 preceding year; they are so abundant everywhere that if one sits 

 down his clothes and even his body soon get covered with them; 

 for though of slovv' pace they immediately climb upon his cloth- 

 'ing, seeking some naked place on the body on which they in- 

 str.ntly fasten themselves by introducing their trunk into the skin. 

 Those who go into the woods barefooted soon get their feet and legs 

 ' covered with them. They fasten themselves not only on man but 

 ' also on animals, such as horses and horned cattle, which they 

 freqiiently kill. They never inhabit meadows or cultivated fields^ 

 or cleared land. They pierce the skin in such a subtile manner 

 that the victim does not feel any pain until half their body is 

 sunk in the flesh ; it is then that he first feels. a. strong itching, 

 and' afterwards a very severe pain. A hard swelling occurs the 

 size of'a pea or larger. It is then very difficult to get rid of the 

 tick, for in endeavouring to draw it out it breaks asunder rather 

 than let go its hold, so that the head and trunk remain in the 

 sore, soon producing inflammation, followed liy suppuration, 

 'whereby the sore is frequently made deejj and dangerous. 

 Itis, therefore, by cutting the flesh all around it that we must 

 try to withdraw the tick entire from the spot where it is lodged. 

 Or it is well to make use of a i)air of tweezers to draw it out, as 

 'M. Kalm states he has done with success. He relates 

 that he has seen horses which ...had the under 

 side of their bodies and other parts so covered with these ticks, 

 that the point of a knife could scarcely he introduced between 

 them', and from being continually sucked by these para- 

 sites, 'deeply sunk into tlie flesh, the animals became so enfeeblecl. 



