HISTORY OF INSECTS. 21 



woods, and other similar situations ; but, happily, 

 in very limited numbers. 



58. There is scarcely any animal more annoying 

 to men and animals than this little fly : its attacks 

 are made in innumerable multitudes, and it is trou- 

 blesome not only from the pain and inflammation 

 caused by its bite, but also from the intolerable 

 itching occasioned by its crawling over the skin. 



59. In the woody and marshy parts of Lapland, 

 the mosquitoes swarm in the months of July and 

 August ; nay, even the summits of the highest 

 mountains, though capped with perpetual snow, 

 impose no obstacle to their progress. Among the 

 numerous gnats and flies which feed on blood, 

 these are the most to be feared ; impelled by an 

 insatiate thirst, they make their attack, and will 

 have blood : nothing can repel or deter them. 



60. Whenever the garment of a traveller has by 

 accident slipped aside, and discovered a portion of 

 his skin, however small, that exposed portion is 

 instantly streaming with blood : in the southern 

 parts of Lapland they are less troublesome than 

 in the northern, although clouds of them occa- 

 sionally appear performing their evolutions in 

 the air. 



61. The mosquito seems to have adopted the 

 world for its country ; no known land appears to 

 be without it ; all temperatures suit it the polar 

 snows, and the blaze of tropical sands. Yet all the 

 flies of which travellers complain as so dreadfully 



