THE TSETSE FLY. 



229 



be spared to pull them off, the leeches hang like bunches of 

 grapes round their ankles ; and I have seen the blood literally 

 flowing over the edge of a European's shoe from their innumera- 

 ble bites. In healthy constitutions the wounds, if not irritated, 

 generally heal, occasioning no other inconvenience than a slight 

 inflammation and itching; but in those with a bad state of body, 

 the punctures, if rubbed, are liable to degenerate into ulcers, 

 which may lead to the loss of limb or of life. Both Marshall 

 and Davy mention that, during the march of the troops in the 

 mountains, when the Kandyans were in rebellion, in 1818, the 

 soldiers, and especially the Madras Sepoys, with the pioneers 

 and coolies, suffered so severely from this cause that numbers 

 of them perished.' 



Among the many noxious insects destructive to the property 

 of man, there is, perhaps none more remarkable than the South 

 African Tsetse-fly {Glosslna morsitans), whose peculiar buzz 

 when once heard can never 

 be forgotten by the traveller 

 whose means of locomotion 

 are domestic animals ; for 

 it is well known that the 

 bite of this poisonous insect 

 is certain death to the ox, 

 horse, and dog. Fortu- 

 nately it is limited to par- 

 ticular districts, frequently 

 infesting one bank of a 

 river while the other con- 

 tains not a single specimen, or else travelling in South Africa 

 would be utterly impossible, and we should now know no 

 more of Lake Ngami or the Zambesi than we did thirty 

 years since. In one journey Dr. Livingstone lost no less 

 than forty-three fine oxen by the bite of the tsetse. A 

 party of Englishmen once attempted to reach Libebe, but they 

 had only proceeded seven or eight days' journey to the north 

 of the Ngami, when both horses and cattle were bitten by the 

 fly, and the party were in consequence compelled to make a 

 hasty retreat. One of the number was thus deprived of as 

 many as thirty-six horses, excellent hunters, and all sustained 

 heavy losses in cattle. 



THE TSETS6. 



