572 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



go crashing through the forest and turn somersault after 

 somersault in the vain effort to rid himself of these min- 

 ute enemies. 



I have seen lumps as large as a baseball on the fore- 

 heads and the backs of the hands of people exposed to 

 the attack of the black fly, and I feel convinced that the 

 exposure of the entire person to the bites of these in- 

 sects would cause death to the victim. 



Not long since, while returning home from a trip in 

 the black fly country, I met a physician of national fame, 

 who is also a member of the Camp Fire Club of Amer : 

 ica. He, too, was returning from a camping trip. 

 The doctor said that the bite of any insect might pro- 

 duce death, and that the black fly did produce death 

 when it had previously been feeding upon the blood of 

 some diseased animal, and transferred the poison into 

 the healthy subject, the effect being a fatal " malignant 

 postule." 



Recently I saw in the daily paper a report from the 

 Cobalt region stating that six men had perished from 

 poison injected by the black fly. 



In 1880 a very remarkable " fly storm " occurred at 

 Havre, and the same year here in America the steamer 

 " Mary Powell," of Haverstraw, ran into a bank of flies 

 which appeared like a great drift of black snow extend- 

 ing as far as the eyes could reach. 



There were millions upon millions of long black flies 

 with white wings. Of course, the crew of the " Mary 

 Powell " are not naturalists, and any sort of an insect 

 might be classed by them under the head of " flies." 

 The same may be said of the reports from England, 



