A LABRADOR SPRING 



in 1771 records in his journal: "A very hot 

 day, and the moschettos bit for the first time 

 this year." 



For this relief many thanks! I can speak 

 with feeling, for in these parts, as old Hakluyt 

 puts it: " There is a kind of small fly or gnat 

 that stingeth and offendeth sorely, leaving 

 many red spots on the face and other places 

 where she stingeth." Hakluyt happens to be 

 right about the sex, for the male stingeth not. 

 In another place he speaks of " certaine sting- 

 ing Gnattes, which bite so fiercely that the 

 place where they bite shortly after swelleth 

 and itcheth very sore." But for quaintness 

 of description and ingenuity of spelling, the 

 following from Whitbourne, writing early in 

 1600 of the Newfoundland mosquito, is per- 

 haps the most satisfactory: " Onely a very 

 little nimble Fly (the least of all other 

 Flies), which is called a Muskeito; those Flies 

 seeme to have a great power and authority 

 upon all loytering and idle people that come 

 to the New-found-land; for they have this 

 property that, when they find any such lying 

 lazily, or sleeping in the Woods, they will 

 presently bee more nimble to seize upon him 



33 



