196 MOSQUITOES. 



seeming terror, Mr. Spence professes himself unable 

 to explain ; but he marks out very judiciously several 

 points of inquiry which are calculated to throw light 

 on this anomalous subject. 



You, perhaps, are not aware, that the common 

 gnat of Britain {Culex pipiens) is supposed to be 

 identical with the dreaded mosquito of other Euro- 

 pean countries, and of the northern parts of Asia 

 and America. Although we suiFer but comparatively 

 little annoyance from the attacks of such insects, I 

 should scarcely be warranted in omitting all reference 

 to the torment they occasion in other climates, and 

 the manner in which they modify, in some respects, 

 the domestic economy of man. They seem to be able 



" The fierce extremes of heat and cold to brook ; " 



for they are found no less abundant among the "thick- 

 ribbed ice" of Lapland, than in regions exposed to 

 the full influence of a tropical sun*. Of the annoy- 

 ance they occasion in India, Captain Basil Hall gives 

 so vivid a description, that, like the unfortunate wight, 

 within the gauze curtains of whose bed a " villainous 

 mosquito" has gained admission, we " can almost 

 fancy there is scorn in the tone of his abominable 

 hum."* Dr. Clarke states, in his Journey along the 

 frontier of Circassia, that the Cossack soldiers " pass 



* Fragments of Voyages and Travels, Third Series, vol. ii. p. 66. 



