found infome Parts of the 'Ruffian Empire. 145 



by killing it. As people cannot open the mouth without fe- 

 verai of them jjettins: into it at once, it often happens that 

 they bite or fciuecze them between the teeth in fpittiiig them 

 out, and one llicn feels, without williing it, that their en- 

 trails have a fwect melleous tafie. At the end of June they 

 alnioll all difappear, and are not again feen till Augult ; but 

 at that period they are far lefs abundant. 



Thefe flies are equally numerous in the Ural mountains, 

 but they arc Hill more fo in the neighbourhood of the woody- 

 mountains of the fouthern part of Siberia beyond the lake 

 Baikal. In the month of June, people are tormented with 

 thefe vermin, even on the mountains, till they reach the cold 

 fummits, where there are no woods. In the latter end of 

 fummer, however, they are not to be feen in thofe diftri6ls» 

 Travelling from Jakulk to Ochozk, they are to be again found 

 in immenfc multitudes as foon as one has palled the Aklaan, 

 and perhaps thev are to be found alfo in North America. 



It is coinmonlv rejxjrtcd, in the Siberian and Ural moun- 

 tains, that thefe fmall infeAs, with the afllltauce of the gad 

 fiicsy which abound about the fame period, torment horfes, 

 and other cattle, in fuch a manner as to oceafion their death 

 when they run about in the forefts, and have no opportunity 

 of cfcapincr to the open country, or to a tire, the imoke of 

 which would drive them away. Inflances of this, however, 

 are not fo frequent in thefe countries as, according to every 

 account, they muft be in the Bannat of Temefwar. The 

 caufe of this, perhaps, is to be afcribed to the great fize of 

 thefe gnats in the latter country, and perhaps alio to fome 

 poilbn^ous quality conne6led with their Hing; for I have ob- 

 icrved, even in Siberia, that their fling fometimes oecafioned 

 on tlie human body large tumours, which fcarcelydilappeared 

 at the end of fcjrty-eight hours. 



I Ihall r>ot here repeat what Grifelini, ^icther true or falfc, 

 has related of thefe infefts. I fhoukl Ime confidered manv 

 of the particulars which he ftatcs, as containing too much 

 of the marvellous, had not Baron Born, in his Letter. s con- 

 liraied the accounts given of the dcllruftivc nature of thefs 

 vermin in that country. " They come to the Bannat of Te- 

 mefwar," fays he, " by millions, as foon as the bloom ap- 

 pears on the trees in the fpring ; fall upon the cattk, creep 

 through the reitum, the nodrils, and the eara, into the moll 

 interior parts of their bodies, and kill them in four or five 

 hours. When the animal is opened they arc found adhering 

 in fwarms to the lunffs and to the bowels, which arc com- 

 pletely inflamed. They continue three or foiu- weeks, and 

 are followed bv immenfe clouda of dragon flies, lihelhda 



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