350 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
to supply us with milk I have seen changed from a straw- 
berry to a black by the myriads of these vampires that 
clung to her; and, but that we lit a large smudge* for her 
to stand over, I believe the poor old creature would have 
died under the incessant torture and irritation. But if 
the poor cow suffered, so did we, and it was only by con- 
stantly lubricating the exposed parts of our persons with 
oil of tar, or oil of pennyroyal, that we were enabled to 
stand the ordeal. Fortunately, the black fly is hungry 
during daylight only; like a respectable citizen, he early 
goes to rest, and equally early recommences business. 
Next come the mosquitoes. I have found the same gen- 
try troublesome in the Mediterranean, bad on the Malay 
peninsula, worse in the paddy-fields of China; but all these 
lack the acuteness and insolence of their Yankee cousins. 
If your hand is bare for a moment, a dozen will be on it; 
when up to your knees in a pool, and fast in a big fish, both 
hands consequently employed, your face and the back of 
your neck will begin to itch—to burn—as if scalding water 
had been poured over them. Nor were the sand-flies de- 
serving of better character, for though so small that you 
can scarcely perceive them, their powers of annoyance are 
tremendous.t Thank Providence that none of these wretch- 
es are made as big as the ferw nature, or else genus homo - 
must soon become extinct. 
I will here tell a little circumstance that befell me. I 
and two acquaintances were fishing under a fall; fish were 
abundant, but space, on account of the trees, too limited 
for so many rods; so down the stream I started, and for- 
got, in my desire to beat the others in results, the odious 
* Decayed damp wood, which burns slowly, and emits a great quantity 
of smoke. 
+ Called by the Indians ‘‘ No-see-ums,” from their minuteness. 
