418 THE MOUNTAIN. 



the mouth of the Rio Unare the wretched inhabitants are 

 required to stretch themselves on the ground, and pass the 

 night buried in the sand three or four inches deep, leav- 

 ing out the head only, which they cover with a handker- 

 chief." 



It appears the female mosquitos are the fiercest depre- 

 dators (only,)* "attacking with most avidity the softer sex, 

 and trying their temper by disfiguring their beauty !"f 



The Culex deposits its eggs in stagnant water, and is 

 most numerous in wet seasons. It is said that " six or seven 

 generations take place in one season, each female depositing 

 about three hundred eggs, which, in three or four weeks, be- 

 come perfect flies, which again deposit eggs," etc. From 

 the eggs the larvae come out in two days and swim around, 

 coming to the surface to breathe. " In two weeks they 

 change into the pupa, which still remains on the surface of 

 the water, and, after a week, bursts open, and the perfect 

 mosquito flies out as if shot from under the water." Trees 

 generally harbor gnats and mosquitos, but it is said the 

 horse-chestnut, planted about a house, will drive them away. 



* " The male, which does not sting, can be readily distinguished by 

 the feathery antennae." HECK. 

 f Kirby and Spence. 



Wonderful is this unity in the midst of diversity : fearful is this 

 law of identity in the domain of instinct. What now of the doctrines 

 of the "Feminine Soul," of the angelic instrumentality of "Femini- 

 city" as the refining and saving influence of the world? It appears 

 that woman, and the female mosquito, are under the dominion of the 

 same barbarous necessities, and held by the same terrible stinging 

 proclivities, " attacking with avidity and disfiguring the softer sex, 

 trying their temper and beauty." There is one vast difference: mos- 

 quito never stings mosquito ; and of course it was no form of the 

 play of this instinct that Byron divined, 

 " Gayer insects fluttering by, 

 Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die, 

 And lovlier things have mercy shown 

 To every failing but their own, 

 And every woe a tear may claim, 

 Except ." 



