A LABRADOR SPRING 
in 1771 records in his journal: ‘‘A very hot 
day, and the moschettos bit for the first time 
this year.”’ 
For this relief many thanks! I can speak 
with feeling, for in these parts, as old Hakluyt 
puts it: ‘‘ There is a kind of small fly or gnat 
that stingeth and offendeth sorely, leaving 
many red spots on the face and other places 
where she stingeth.”’ Hakluyt happens to be 
right about the sex, for the male stingeth not. 
In another place he speaks of “ certaine sting- 
ing Gnattes, which bite so fiercely that the 
place where they bite shortly after swelleth 
and itcheth very sore.’’ But for quaintness 
of description and ingenuity of spelling, the 
following from Whitbourne, writing early in 
1600 of the Newfoundland mosquito, is per- 
haps the most satisfactory: ‘‘Onely a very 
little nimble Fly (the least of all other 
Flies), which is called a Muskeito; those Flies 
seeme to have a great power and authority 
upon all loytering and idle people that come 
to the New-found-land; for they have this 
property that, when they find any such lying 
lazily, or sleeping in the Woods, they will 
presently bee more nimble to seize upon him 
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