CHAPTER IX 



MOSQUITOES 



Reference to my Smith Landing Journal for June 17 

 shows the following: 



"The Spring is now on in full flood, the grass is 

 high, the trees are fully leaved, flowers are blooming, 

 birds arc nesting, and the mosquitoes are a terror to 

 man and beast." 



If I were; to repeat all the entries in that last key, it 

 would make dreary and painful reading; I shall rather 

 say the worst right now, and henceforth avoid the 



subject. 



Every traveller in the country agrees that the mos- 

 quitoes are a frightful curse. Captain Back, in 1833 

 (Journal, p. 117), said that the sand-flies and mos- 

 quitoes are the worst of the hardships to which the 

 northern traveller is exposed. 



T. Hut chins, over a hundred years ago, said that no 

 one enters the Barren Grounds in the summer, because 

 no man can stand the stinging insects. I had read 

 these various statements, but did not grasp the idea 

 until I was among them. At Smith Landing, June 7, 

 mosquitoes began to be troublesome, quite as numer- 

 ous as in the worst part of the New Jersey marshes. 

 An estimate of those on the mosquito bar over my bed, 

 showed 000 to 1 ,000 t rying to get at me; day and night, 

 without change, the air was ringing with their hum. 



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