86 The Americom Salmon-fisherman. 



gency. When exposed to attack, the cork is removed 

 from time to time, and a little of the contents of the bot- 

 tle is smeared on the face with the fingers. The face 

 need not be covered. A little here and there will suffice. 

 Indeed, if the flies are not very numerous and aggressive, 

 it will be enough to anoint the cloth near the face. 

 Though not what a particular man would select as a 

 perfume, stUl it is not disagreeable — certainly not when 

 compared with fly-bites. It is a cleanly fluid, does not 

 discolor or disorder the skin, and is readUy removable 

 by the ordinary process of washing. 



The generic name for mixtures of this kind — at least 

 throughout the wilderness which intervenes between the 

 settlements of Maine and Canada — is " bug-juice." Hu- 

 man life is thought to be too short by the ranger of the 

 wild-woods, and the articulations of his jaws are too in- 

 flexible for the terms " insect-repellant," " culexif uge," 

 and the many other appellations in vogue in the settle- 

 ments. 



Many stories, duly equipped with a moral, come to us 

 from a life destined soon to become historical only. 



Many of -my readers have perhaps heard the following: 



A Western ranger, festooned with pistols and bowie- 

 knives like an Algerine corsair, — at least like the Alge- 

 rine corsair of the picture-books, — ^when asked what in 



he wanted to ballast himself that way for with such 



a lot of old iron, replied that though a nuisance to carry, 

 and though he wanted them but seldom, yet " when he 

 did want them he wanted them mighty bad ; that it was 

 better to be fixed." 



We may with profit apply this moral to a mosquito- 



