304 



ZOOLOGY. 



[PART II. 



descrying their prey they advance rapidly by semi- 

 circular strides, fixing one end firmly and arching the 

 other forwards, till by successive advances they can 



LAKD LEECHES. 



lay hold of the traveller's foot, when they disengage 

 themselves from the ground and ascend his dress in 

 search of an aperture to enter. In these encounters 

 the individuals in the rear of a party of travellers 

 in the jungle invariably fare worst, as the leeches, 

 once warned of their approach, congregate with sin- 

 gular celerity. Their size is so insignificant, and the 

 wound they make is so skilfully punctured, that both 

 are generally imperceptible, and the first intima- 

 tion of their onslaught is the trickling of the blood 

 or a chill feeling of the leech when it begins to 

 hang heavily on the skin from being distended by 

 its repast. Horses are driven wild by them, and 

 stamp the ground in fury to shake them from their 

 fetlocks, to which they hang in bloody tassels. The 

 bare legs of the palankin bearers and coolies are a 

 favourite resort ; and, their hands being too much en- 

 gaged to 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 innumerable bites. In 

 healthy constitutions the wounds, if not irritated, gene- 

 rally 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 



