18 INTRODUCTION. 



first struck with the expression " swarms of files ; " and we 

 are sure that every one who has seen " a swarm of gnats 

 at even-tide" will perceive the aptness of the expression. sup- 

 posing the Egyptian fly to be a species of gnat, or, in other 

 words, the musquito. We next read of their making their 

 way into the houses, which shall be full of flies. Tliis is 

 also precisely the habit of the Culicidte. The next passage, 

 that they should also swarm upon the ground, is certainly 

 not in favour of my interpretation, and would apparently 

 apply to some other species ; but it is in the last passage 

 quoted that we perceive the fullest corroboration of my 

 view of the subject. Bryant says, "The land of Goshen 

 was a tongue-like piece of land, where the Nile first divided 

 at a place called Cercasora; Said, or Upper Egypt, lying 

 above, and Mesre, or Lower Egypt, was in a line downward;" 

 and Bruce states, that " the land of Goshen was a land of 

 pasture, not tilled or sown, because it was not overflown! Inj 

 the Nile. But the land overflowed by the Nile was the black 

 earth of the valley of Egypt, and it was here that God con- 

 fined the flies, for He says it shall be a sign of this separa- 

 tion of the people which He then made, that not one fly 

 should be seen in the sand or pasture-ground of the land of 

 Goshen ; and this kind of soil has ever since been the refuge 

 of all cattle emigrating from the black earth to the lower 

 part of Atbara." These observations appear to me almost 

 conclusive upon the question : the sandy pasture soil of 

 the land of Goshen would have been the spot where the 

 cockroach would have resorted to naturally, and it is the 

 spot where the musquito would not have been found. Far 

 be it from us to deny the miraculous power of the Almighty 

 in producing this surprising flight of flies, but we know, in 

 our own days, that in certain seasons certain species of 

 insects are multiplied to such an extent as to become a posi- 

 tive evil. We know not, of course, for what end such mid- 



