AMERICAN MOSQUITOES. 365 



myriads of these vampires that clung to her ; and, but 

 that we lit a large smudge* for her to stand over, I believe 

 the poor old creature would have died under the incessant 

 torture and irritation. But if the poor cow suffered, so 

 did we, and it was only by constantly lubricating the 

 exposed parts of our persons with oil of tar, or oil of 

 pennyroyal, that we were enabled to stand the ordeal. 

 Fortunately, the black fly is hungry during daylight only ; 

 like a respectable citizen, he early goes to rest, and equally 

 early recommences business. 



Next come the mosquitoes. I have found the same 

 gentry troublesome in the Mediterranean, bad on the 

 Malay Peninsula, worse in the paddy-fields of China, but 

 all these lack the 'cuteness and insolence of their Yankee 

 cousins. If your hand is bare for a moment, a dozen will 

 be on it ; when up to your knees in a pool, and fast in a 

 big fish, both hands consequently employed, your face 

 and the back of your neck will begin to itch to burn as 

 if scalding water had been poured over them. Nor were 

 the sand-flies deserving of better character, for though 

 so small that you can scarcely perceive them, their powers 

 of annoyance are tremendous. f Thank Providence that 

 none of these wretches are made as big as the ./me natures, 

 or else genus homo must soon become extinct. 



I will here tell a little circumstance that befell me. I 

 and two acquaintances were fishing under a fall. Fish 

 were abundant, but space, on account of the trees, too 



* Decayed damp wood, which burns slowly and emits a great quantity 

 of smoke. 



t Called by the Indians "No-see-ums," from their minuteness. 



