282 BLUEFIELDS. 



which ran in and out among the fur with great 

 agility ; it appeared as if the hair actually separated 

 and opened spontaneously for their admission. 



MUSQUITOES. 



These troublesome insects seem nearly equally 

 annoying throughout the New World. I do not think 

 them at all worse in Jamaica, than in Canada or 

 Newfoundland, perhaps not so bad. In marshy 

 places, even in England, the punctures of these minute 

 tormentors (for Musquitoes are merely Gnats)* are 

 as painful, and perhaps as numerous, as in many parts 

 of Jamaica. Some situations are of course more 

 subject to their presence than others. Bluefields, 

 situated on a rising ground, open and exposed to the 

 invigorating sea-breeze, enjoys a remarkable immu- 

 nity from them. The humid forest harbours them, 

 especially in the mountains ; and in many cases the 

 roads are almost quite free from them, where if you 

 step into the wood on either side though only a few 

 paces, you would presently be surrounded by their 

 shrill trumpets, and covered with their bites. There 

 is a good deal of difference in the character of the 

 wounds inflicted by different species : those that 

 frequent the lowlands (Culex pungens for example) 

 are of larger size, sing with a graver sound, and insert 

 the proboscis often without any present pain, but a 



* Humboldt's remark that the term Musquito is not given to the 

 Culex, but to the Simulium, though it may be true of South America, 

 certainly does not apply to Jamaica, or to the Northern Continent, 

 where both these genera are but too well known. 



