22 A KIAWA ‘LOVE SCRAPE.’ 
Although we found the buffalo extremely 
scarce westward of Spring Valley, yet there 
was no lack of game; for every nook and 
glade swarmed with deer and wild turkeys, 
partridges and grouse. We had also occasion 
to become acquainted with another species 
of prairie-tenant whose visits generally oe 
duced impressions that were anything but 
agreeable. I allude to a small black insect 
generally known to prairie travellers as the 
‘buffalo-gnat.’ It not only attacks the face 
and hands, but even contrives to insinuate it- 
self into those parts which one is most care- 
ful to guard against intrusion. Here it fastens 
itself and luxuriates, until completely satisfied. 
Its bite is so poisonous as to give the face, neck, 
and hands, or any other part of the person up- 
on which its affectionate caresses have been 
bestowed, the appearance of a pustulated va- 
rioloid. The buffalo-gnat is in fact a much 
more annoying insect than the mosquito, and 
also much more frequently met with on the 
Prairies. 
We now continued our line of march be- 
tween the Canadian and the timbered ridge 
with very little difficulty. Having stopped to 
‘noon’ in a bordering valley, we were quite 
surprised by the appearance of an Indian 
with no other protection than his squaw. 
From what we could gather by their signs, 
they had been the victims of a ‘love scrape.’ 
The fellow, whom I found to be a Kiawa, 
had, according to his own account, stolen the 
wife of another, and then fled to the thickets, 
