350 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



to supply us with milk I have seen changed from a straw- 

 berry to a black by the myriads of these vampires that 

 clung to her ; and, but that we lit a large smudge* for her 

 to stand over, I believe the poor old creature would have 

 died under the incessant torture and irritation. But if 

 the poor cow suffered, so did we, and it was only by con- 

 stantly lubricating the exposed parts of our persons with 

 oil of tar, or oil of pennyroyal, that we were enabled to 

 stand the ordeal. Fortunately, the black fly is hungry 

 during daylight only; like a respectable citizen, he early 

 goes to rest, and equally early recommences business. 



Next come the mosquitoes. I have found the same gen- 

 try troublesome in the Mediterranean, bad on the Malay 

 peninsula, worse in the paddy-fields of China ; but all these 

 lack the acuteness and insolence of their Yankee cousins. 

 If your, hand is bare for a moment, a dozen will be on it ; 

 when up to your knees in a pool, and fast in a big fish, both 

 hands consequently employed, your face and the back of 

 your neck will begin to itch to burn as if scalding water 

 had been poured over them. Nor were the sand-flies de- 

 serving of better character, for though so small that you 

 can scarcely perceive them, their powers of annoyance are 

 tremendous.f Thank Providence that none of these wretch- 

 es are made as big as the ferce naturce, or else genus homo 

 must soon become extinct. 



I will here tell a little circumstance that befell me. I 

 and two acquaintances were fishing under a fall ; fish were 

 abundant, but space, on account of the trees, too limited 

 for so many rods ; so down the stream I started, and for- 

 got, in my desire to beat the others in results, the odious 



* Decayed damp wood, which burns slowly, and emits a great quantity 

 of smoke. 



t Called by the Indians " No-see-ums," from their minuteness. 



