General Observations on Norway. 3259 



prevent them, I soon left off attempting to stop him, and patiently 

 awaited his pleasure to go on again. 



Of all the creatures that in the vulgar but very expressive words of 

 Brother Jonathan, " graze upon the human " (and in Norway all such 

 abound to a fearful extent), there is none so persecuting and annoying, 

 so persevering in its attacks by day as well as by night, so poisonous 

 in its bite, so painful in its effects, as the mosquito. These horrid lit- 

 tle gnats may be heard drumming away in the air at all hours. They 

 never leave one alone. Had I not protected my hands with gloves, 

 and my face with a veil by day, and had I not invariably slept under a 

 mosquito-net, which I took the precaution to carry with me, I should 

 have been driven wild at times : as it was, I was bitten often enough ; 

 they would dig through my gloves and socks, and attack my face with- 

 out mercy when the veil was laid aside, and I could not always live 

 under gauze : and especially when fishing was I subject to their at- 

 tacks ; they swarmed by the water-side, and many a time fairly drove 

 me away from their haunts by their persecution. I have been teazed 

 by them in Italy many a time, thought them very disagreeable at Na- 

 ples, and quite vexatious in the Pontine Marshes, but never until I 

 went to Norway had I an idea what a mosquito can do : now I am 

 fully aware of his powers, and am ready to acknowledge him the most 

 puissant of tyrants. As I said before, other nightly marauders on the 

 human body swarmed in multitudes in Norway, but I could defy all 

 their attacks, as I slept in sheets, made with a view to their discomfi- 

 ture before I left England, sewn round the sides and bottom like a sack, 

 and crowned with a large mosquito-net at the head ; ensconced in 

 which I was secure from all their blood-thirsty attempts, and could 

 even smile at the droning of my enemies, the mosquitoes, who hum- 

 med outside my net during the livelong night. 



What the forest-flies were to my poney, and the mosquitoes to me, 

 the gadflies are to the reindeer. They attack their horns, and nearly 

 drive them mad with pain and annoyance ; and then the reindeer will 

 rush to the nearest water, and by plunging in their fevered horns try 

 to gain some respite from the agonizing and maddening assaults of 

 this diminutive but most bitter foe. 



General Observations. — In concluding my Notes on the Natural 

 History of Norway, I wish to say a few words on the general character 

 of the country, because it is in my opinion the very best country in 

 Europe for a summer tour, whether the tourist be a sportsman, a fish- 

 erman, a naturalist or an artist; its forests, its fjelds and its fjords for 



