2 4 o OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



keep away the insects, and this seemed the most effectual 

 remedy, so that by adopting it, and walking about at 

 the same time, the explorer managed to "pass an hour 

 pretty comfortably." Mr. H. W. Bates, speaking of 

 Fonte Boa, also in the same region, says that, "in 

 addition to its other amenities, it has the reputation 

 throughout the country of being the headquarters of 

 mosquitoes, and it fully deserves the title. They are 

 more annoying in the hours by day than by night, 

 for they swarm in the dark and damp rooms, keeping 

 in the daytime near the floor, and settling by half- 

 dozens together on the legs. At night the calico tent is 

 a sufficient protection, but this is obliged to be folded 

 every morning, and in letting it down before sunset 

 great care is required to prevent even one or two of the 

 tormentors from stealing in beneath, their insatiable 

 thirst for blood, and pungent sting, making these enough 

 to spoil all comfort." From these extracts we see that 

 the experience of the traveller in South America is by 

 no means uniform, and this partly results from there 

 being several distinct species of flies concerned in these 

 attacks, some inhabiting one stream and some another, 

 according to the character of the water, and having also 

 their time of flight at different hours of the day and 

 night. These peculiarities were particularly noticed by 

 Humboldt. 



Mungo Park considered that crocodiles were but of 

 little account to the traveller in Africa, "when com- 

 pared with the amazing swarms of mosquitoes, which 

 rise from the swamps and creeks in such numbers as to 

 harass even the most torpid of the natives." With his 

 clothes almost worn to rags, he was ill-prepared to resist 

 their attacks, and frequently, therefore, passed the night 

 walking backwards and forwards, fanning himself with 



