POISONS, POISONOUS SNAKES AND INSECTS, ETC. 399 



uing. to bore deeper and deeper, and to imbed themselves 

 lower down in the flesh. While the first army of maggots 

 is thus ravenously seeking for new flesh and fresh blood, the 

 fly deposits new recruits, that soon follow^ the others in search 

 of untasted tissues, on which to feast themselves. The skin 

 forms a sack or bag to hold the perforated parts and keep 

 them from sloughing oft', and these parts become a fungous, 

 spongy mass of inflamed and rotten flesh, whence constantly 

 exudes a purulent, offensive matter, which constitutes the 

 food of the fly and the home of the ijiaggot, or borer- worm. 



The head and shoulders are the parts most frequently at- 

 tacked, but no w^ounded member or surface escapes. The 

 magnitude of the borer- worm bunch, and the quantities of 

 these vampires that they often contain, are perfectly incred- 

 ible. The bunch has been seen upon the horses, cattle, buf- 

 falo, and deer, of all dimensions, from the size of a man's 

 hand up to that of a bushel-basket, and has been found to 

 contain not merely quarts, but absolutely bushels of the mag- 

 got-worm Of course, death soon comes to the relief of the 

 wretched animal, and mercifully puts an end to tortures in- 

 conceivable. 



On the great plains of the West, the buffaloes, wald horses, 

 and deer often fall a prey to the fearful rapacity of the borer- 

 worm, bunches of which they have been seen carrying upon 

 their bodies of such enormous bulk that no one could be- 

 lieve the accounts given of them, unless his own eyes had 

 seen them. Droves of wolves follow these poor animals 

 night and day, hanging around them until they become so 

 weak as to be unable longer to defend themselves, when 

 they are devoured by the hungry pack. 



A writer in the " Waverly Magazine," a few years since, 

 gave a most graphic, yet sickening, description of th^ rav- 

 ages of the borer- worm, under the caption of the " Mag^'oty 

 Buffalo." The author of this work, when in Texas in 1851, 

 saw cases of the kind above described, although none in their 

 most advanced stages, and often heard the people of that 

 region recount the horrible operations of this terrible scourge. 



