Gillies. — Notes on some Chanyes in the Fauna of Otago. 311 



not escape so easily, aud dire tales of unrest and suffering were constantly- 

 recounted by hapless wights who had to spend a night anywhere on the 

 great Taieri swamp, as it was termed in those days. There was a totara- 

 bark house in the bush at the Taieri village, known as Milne's accom- 

 modation-house, that was noted far and wide for mosquitos ; and amidst 

 the wondrous tales of adventure and discomfort which every traveller in 

 those days had to tell, the nocturnal sufferings endured, and the expedients 

 tried, to escape from the mosquitos at Milne's accommodation-house, always 

 bore a prominent part. The Tokomairiro Plain, on the other hand, was 

 never considered bad for mosquitos, though up near the bush there were 

 always plenty of them. The Molyneux Island, on the other hand, was 

 notoriously bad ; but it must be borne in mind that in those days this 

 Ultima Thule of the Otago block was classic ground for all the wild tales 

 of hair-breadth escapes, privations, and adventures that could possibly 

 fall to the lot of a New Zealand colonist. But you must not suppose 

 that I wish you to think the tales about mosquitos were mythical. I 

 will come to actual facts within my own experience and observation. In 

 the years 1856-8, before the country was settled, I was engaged as a 

 government officer surveying the Waihopai, New Eiver, and Mataura 

 Plains trigonometrically, and of course lived entirely in tents. The 

 mosquitos were, I can assure you, anything but myths, especially on 

 the New Eiver. On retmng to our tents in the evening, we tried to 

 get rid of them by burning green branches, cow-dung, or anything that 

 would make a dense smoke to drive them out, and then quickly and 

 carefully closing up the curtain of the tent endeavoured to pop off to sleep 

 before they made good their entrance again. But, alas ! we soon found 

 that the chances of success were small indeed, for those that had fallen 

 stupefied to the ground with the smoke soon revived, and the first noise of 

 the singing of their wings was the signal for the breaking out of an infernal 

 chorus from all those that had been secreted about the blankets and fern 

 forming our beds, who all sallied forth with bloodthirsty energy to reveno-e 

 the retreat of their fellows upon the now prostrate and passive foe. Then, 

 if "tired nature's sweet restorer" had not already " paid his ready visit," 

 good-bye to " balmy sleep." So intolerable and incessant was the nuisance 

 that at last I hit upon a ];)lan which completely baffied them, and I could 

 go to sleep with myriads buzzing round me and awake in the morning 

 unharmed. For the benefit of all travellers, I must tell you what it was. 

 In the first place I wrapped myself round in an opossum rug with the 

 skinny side out. This they could not penetrate through, for it is a fact 

 that they v/ill penetrate through ordinary blankets. For the protection of 

 my head and face, which, of course, had to be outside the rug, and were the 



