IN FLORIDA. 71 



them the most pain, was, that they would have to 

 tell the wife of the engineer, who was lost, of his 

 death. This they dreaded as much as they would 

 have dreaded another struggle in the water. 



There is often danger from the heavy fogs, which 

 roll up dense, and dark on the St. John's in the 

 night time, and we saw several accidents from that 

 cause. We took the precaution of always anchor- 

 ing, when not in port, on some flat, and making 

 sure of a well filled anchor light. The steamers 

 invariably follow the channel, for their own protec- 

 tion, and the pilots run at full speed, as in that way 

 alone can they be sure of their position, a knowledge 

 which comes to them by habit. There was, how- 

 ever, one annoyance, which no lights would pre- 

 vent, no mosquito nets keep out, and no preparation 

 mitigate, the plague of gnats; they come, when they 

 make up their minds to come, in myriads, pour down 

 the companion way, preferring the inside of the 

 cabin to the outside, make themselves at home, push 

 into the state-rooms, and do not care in the least 

 how many millions of their number you immolate. 

 I had been advised that insect powder, if burned in 

 the cabin, would drive them out. On their first 

 visitation I tried the remedy. It is to be feared that 

 the heartless person who gave me that recipe was a 

 practical Joker. There is nothing in the nature of 

 gnats to specially provoke merriment so far as I 

 could ever see, or feel, but there are persons who ex- 

 tract pleasure from a funeral. I placed a small quan- 

 tity of the powder on a piece of paper, which I light- 



