352 ANIMALS OF THE 



weedy lakes, with which the country abounds 

 more than any other part of the world, are all 

 upon the wing, and fill the whole air, like clouds 

 of dust in a dry windy day. The inhabitants, at 

 that time, are obliged to daub their faces with 

 pitch, mixed with milk, to shield their skins from 

 their depredations. All places are then so great- 

 ly infested, that the poor natives can scarcely 

 open their mouths without fear of suffocation : 

 the insects enter, from their numbers and minute- 

 ness, into the nostrils and the eyes, and do not 

 leave the sufferer a moment at his ease. But they 

 are chiefly enemies to the rein-deer : the horns 

 of that animal being then in their tender state, 

 and possessed of extreme sensibility, a famished 

 cloud of insects instantly settle upon them, and 

 drive the poor animal almost to distraction. In 

 this extremity, there are but two remedies, to 

 which the quadruped, as well as its master, are 

 obliged to have recourse. The one is, for both 

 to take shelter near their cottage, where a large 

 fire of tree moss is prepared, which filling the 

 whole place with smoke, keeps off the gnat, and 

 thus, by one inconvenience, expels a greater : the 

 other is, to ascend to the highest summit of the 

 mountains, where the air is too thin, and the 

 weather too cold for the gnats to come. There 

 the rein-deer are seen to continue the whole day, 

 although without food, rather than to venture 

 down into the lower parts, where they can have 

 no defence against their unceasing persecutors. 

 Besides the gnat, there is also a gadfly, that, 

 during the summer season, is no less formidable 



