CHAPTER IX 



MOSQUITOES 



Reference to my Smith Landing Journal for June 17 

 shows the following: 



"The Spring is now on in full flood, the grass is 

 high, the trees are fully leaved, flowers are blooming, 

 birds are nesting, and the mosquitoes are a terror to 

 man and beast." 



If I were to repeat all the entries in that last key, it 

 would make dreary and painful reading; I shall rather 

 say the worst right now, and henceforth avoid the 

 subject. 



Every traveller in the country agrees that the mos- 

 quitoes are a frightful curse. Captain Back, in 1833 

 (Journal, p. 117), said that the sand-flies and mos- 

 quitoes are the worst of the hardships to which the 

 northern traveller is exposed. 



T. Hutchins, over a hundred years ago, said that no 

 one enters the Barren Grounds in the summer, because 

 no man can stand the stinging insects. I had read 

 these various statements, but did not grasp the idea 

 until I was among them. At Smith Landing, June 7, 

 mosquitoes began to be troublesome, quite as numer- 

 ous as in the worst part of the New Jersey marshes. 

 An estimate of those on the mosquito bar over my bed, 

 showed 900 to 1,000 trying to get at me ; day and night, 

 without change, the air was ringing with their hum. 



61 



