DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS. 137 



the favorite food of the trout in the wooded regions where those 

 insects abound.* Earlier in the year the trout feeds on the larvae 

 of the May-fly, which is itseK very destructive to the spawn of 

 the salmon, and hence, by a sort of house-that-Jack-built, the de- 

 struction of the mosquito, that feeds the trout that preys on the 

 May-fly that destroys the eggs that hatch the salmon that pam- 

 pers the epicure, may occasion a scarcity of this latter fish in 

 waters where he would otherwise be abundant. Thus all nature 

 is hnked together by invisible bonds, and every organic creature, 

 however low, however feeble, however dependent, is necessary to 

 the well-being of some other among the myriad forms of life with 

 which the Creator has peopled the earth. 



I have said that man has promoted the increase of the insect 

 and the worm, by destroying the bird and the fish which feed 

 upon them.f Many insects, in the four different stages of their 



* Insects and fish — which prey upon and feed each other — are the only forms 

 of animal life that are numerous in the native woods, and their range is, of 

 course, limited by the extent of the waters. The great abundance of the trout, 

 and of other more or less allied genera in the lakes of Lapland, seems to be 

 due to the supply of food provided for them by the swarms of insects which 

 in the larva state inhabit the waters, or, in other stages of their life, are acci- 

 dentally swept into them. All travellers in the north of Europe speak of the 

 gnat and the mosquito as very serious drawbacks upon the enjoyments of the 

 summer tourist, who visits the head of the Gulf of Bothnia to see the mid- 

 night sun, and the brothers Laestadius regard them as one of the great plagues 

 of sub-arctic life. " The persecutions of these insects," says Lars Levi Laes- 

 tadius [Culex pipiens, Culex reptans, and Culex pulicaris], "leave not a mo- 

 ment's peace, by day or night, to any living creature. Not only man, but cat- 

 tle, and even birds and wild beasts, suffer intolerably from their bite." He 

 adds in a note, " I will not affirm that they have ever devoured a living man, 

 but many young cattle, such as lambs and calves, have been worried out of 

 their lives by them. All the people of Lapland declare that young birds are 

 killed by them, and this is not improbable, for birds are scarce after seasons 

 when the midge, the gnat, and the mosquito are numerous." — Om JJppodlingcur 

 i Lappmarken, p. 50. 



Petrus Laestadius makes similar statements in his Journal far forsta a/ret, p. 

 285. 



f The following is an extract from a highly respectable Journal, the article 

 from which it is taken having been inspired by the plague of locusts and grass- 

 hoppers which were at that time consuming the harvests of whole States : 

 " It was recently stated in a Chicago paper that 10,000 quails and prairie 

 chickens were fed to swine in a single day, in that city. It went on to say 

 that, in the country west of Chicago, quails, ruffed grouse, and prairie chick- 

 ens are destroyed by the million, irrespective of law or season. Tons of 



