282 MTGEATIONS OF T1IE MOSQUITOS. 



intervals. In places where the absence of crocodiles pennits 

 people to enter a river, M. Bonpland and myself observed 

 that the immoderate use of baths, while it moderated the 

 pain of old stings of zancudos, rendered us more sensible 

 to new stings. By bathing more than twice a day, the skin 

 is brought into a state of nervous irritability, of which no 

 idea can be formed in Europe. It would seem as if all 

 feeling were carried toward the integuments. 



As the mosquito-2 and gnats pass two-thirds of their lives 

 in the water, it is not surprising that these noxious insects 

 become less numerous in proportion as you recede from the 

 banks of the great rivers which intersect the forests. They 

 seem to prefer the spots where their metamorphosis took 

 place, and where they go to deposit their eggs. In fact the 

 wild Indians (Indies monteros) experience the greater diffi- 

 culty in accustoming themselves to the life of the missions, 

 as they suffer in the Christian establishments a torment 

 which they scarcely know in their own inland dwellings. 

 The natives at Maypures, Atures, and Esmeralda, have been 

 seen fleeing to the woods, or, as they say, al monte, solely 

 from the dread of mosquitos. Unfortunately, all the Missions 

 of the Orinoco have been established too near the banks of 

 the river. At Esmeralda the inhabitants assured us that if 

 the village were situated in one of the five plains surrounding 

 the nigh mountains of Duida and Maraguaca, they should 

 breathe freely, and enjoy some repose. The great cloud of 

 mosquitos (la nube de moscas) to use the expression of the 

 monks, is suspended only over the Orinoco and its tributary 

 streams, and is dissipated in proportion as you remove from 

 the rivers. "We should form a very inaccurate idea of 

 Guiana and Brazil, were we to judge of that great forest four 

 hundred leagues wide, lying between the sources of the 

 Madeira and the Lower Orinoco, from the vailies of the 

 rivers by which it is crossed. 



I learned that the little insects of the family of the nemo- 

 cerae migrate from time to time like the alouate monkeys, 

 which live in society. In certain spots, at the commence- 

 ment of the rainy season, different species appear, the sting 

 of which has not yet been felt. We were informed at the 

 Rio Magdalena, that at Simiti no other culex than the jejen 

 was formerly known j and it was then possible to enjoy a 





