90 NEWFOUNDLAND 



soared overhead lazily, or chased one another in clumsy play. 

 The heat of the day had not commenced, and the great grey 

 curtain of midges were still a scattered mass of lethargic 

 life, reposing on the river stones. 



During the warm hours of the day black flies make life 

 a burden to some people, especially to the natives, and to 

 such an extent are their bites felt that many will not venture 

 up the rivers in summer and early autumn. Personally I did 

 not suffer much from their attentions, but I have seen men 

 absolutely driven out of the country by them. In the evening 

 sand-flies and mosquitoes are sometimes almost unbearable, 

 the only relief being obtained by smoking continuously beside 

 a good camp fire. 



With regard to black flies and mosquitoes and their 

 onslaughts on idle persons, a delightful homily with a beauti- 

 ful moral is thus given by Captain Whitbourne (1622). 



"Neither are there any Snakes, Toads, Serpents, or any 

 other venomous Wormes that ever were known to hurt any 

 man in that Country, but onely a very little nimble Fly (the 

 least of all other Flies), which is called a Muskeito ; those 

 Flies seem to have a great power and authority upon all 

 loytering and idle people that come to the New-found-land ; 

 for they have this property that, when they find any such 

 lying lazily, or sleeping in the Woods, they will presently bee 

 more nimble to seize upon them, than any Sargeant will bee 

 to arrest a man for debt ; neither will they leave stinging or 

 sucking out the blood of such sluggards, until, like a Beadle, 

 they bring him to his Master, where he should labour : in 

 which time of loytering, those Flies will so brand such idle 

 persons in their faces, that they may be known from others, 

 as the Turks do their slaves." 



Nothing moved, and there was no sound save the roar 



