340 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 
as possible and they went to the round-ups at full speed, and little or nothing was 
done for nearly five days ; by this time the main body had passed, though plenty 
remained to make everything uncomfortable for about two weeks. This migra- 
tion was from east to west and the line was about three miles wide—above and 
below this there were no mosquitoes. 
“Migration No. 2 occurred in October, 1886. They came from the same 
marsh before described—this migration confined itself to the Matagorda Bay 
shore line, reaching inland about half a mile; there were as many mosquitoes 
in this limit as there were in the three miles of migration No. 1. They clouded 
the sky, bent down the grass with their weight, and made all driftwood and 
ground the same color. All stock left the shore and went north outside of the 
line of marsh. The wind was light and from the south, and did not affect the 
mosquitoes in their flight, which was westward ; the main flight was low, ten or 
twelve feet high and always in the same direction. With three other men I rode 
into the swarm to a large pile of drift and trash and set it on fire, and stood in 
the smoke for some time watching them. They passed sometime during the 
third day, leaving very few stragglers behind. By inquiry, I traced both of 
these swarms from the marsh before described to fifteen or twenty miles west 
of my ranch, a total distance, air line, of fifty or sixty miles. 
“ No. 1 crossed Trupalacios Bay, where it was five miles wide, and Carancahua 
Bay, where it was one mile wide. No. 2 holding to the shore line, crossed 
Trupalacios Bay, three miles, Carancahua Bay, at Pass, 300 yards, Keller’s Bay, 
skin half mile, Cox’s Bay, one and a half miles, and Port Lavaca Bay, four 
miles. 
When Dr. John B. Smith began his work in New Jersey nothing exact was 
known of the breeding habits of the salt-marsh mosquitoes, or of their powers of 
migration. The fact of their ability to migrate was denied by nearly all ento- 
mologists. Doctor Smith’s early work resulted in the determination of the life- 
history of Aédes sollicitans, and his later work, that in 1903-4, resulted in a 
complete demonstration of the migratory habits of A. sollicitans, A. cantator and 
A. teniorhynchus. He was led to investigate the matter carefully on account 
of the fact that anti-mosquito operations carried on in certain New Jersey towns, 
on the theory that the entire mosquito supply was bred locally, were unsuccessful ; 
furthermore, the salt-marsh mosquitoes were found far inland and in numbers 
too large to have been carried by trains ; and lastly, experiments indicated that 
they would not breed in fresh water. The controlling argument was the pres- 
ence in overwhelming numbers of adult salt-marsh mosquitoes where no trace 
of their larve could be found. Doctor Smith had previously watched sollicitans 
carefully on many occasions and had found that it flies quite readily against even 
a brisk wind, and makes good progress. He placed himself several times in an 
alley in the direct line of the wind and watched the mosquitoes come sailing 
against it without apparent effort. He had driven, as have many of us, over 
infested roads at quite a rapid pace, and had found that the mosquitoes hovering 
over the horse and about the carriage had no difficulty in keeping up. He had 
been in a steam launch which was followed by a mosquito swarm for more than 
five miles across an open stretch of water. 
In order to understand the sudden appearance of great numbers of mosquitoes 
on the salt marshes and their subsequent migration a knowledge of the breeding 
