304 



ZOOLOGY. 



[Part II. 



descrying tlieii' prey they advance rapidly by semi- 

 circular strides, fixing one end firmly and arching the 

 other forwards, till by successive advances they can 



LAND LEECHEF. 



lay hold of the traveller's foot, v^hen they disengage 

 themselves from the ground and ascend his dress in 

 search of an aperture to enter. In these encounters 

 the individuals in the rear of a party of travellers 

 in the jungle invariably fare worst, as the leeches, 

 once warned of thek approach, congregate with sin- 

 gular celerity. Their size is so insignificant, and the 

 wound they make is so sldlfully punctured, that both 

 are generally imperceptible, and the first intima- 

 tion of their onslaught is the trickhng of the blood 

 or a chill feeling of the leech when it begins to 

 hang heavily on the skin from being distended by 

 its repast. Horses are driven wild by them, and 

 stamp the ground in fury to shake them from their 

 fetlocks, to which they hang in bloody tassels. The 

 bare legs of the palanldn bearers and coohes are a 

 favourite resort ; and, their hands being too much en- 

 gaged to be spared to pull them ofi", tlie leeches hang 

 like bunches of grapes round their ankles ; and I have 

 seen the blood hterally flowing over the edge of a 

 European's shoe from their innumerable bites. In 

 healthy constitutions the wounds, if not irritated, gene- 

 rally heal, occasioning no other inconvenience than a 

 shght inflammation and itching ; but in those with a 

 bad state of body, the punctures, if rubbed, are liable 



