[meets. 4475 



drive any person with a small stock of patience mad ; I never suffered 

 such annoyance from anything in my life. They get into the eyes, 

 the nostrils and the mouth, and cling to the face with most villanous 

 pertinacity, returning immediately after they are driven away. Meat 

 is never safe from them : they will blow it if it be exposed but a few 

 minutes, and they actually deposit the maggots living ; indeed, if a 

 blow-fly is killed, you may take the living maggots from their bodies. 

 Then there are the ants, which may be found of all sizes, from the 

 size of a pin's point to an inch and a quarter in length, and they both 

 bite and sting — 1 say nothing of the B-flats and F-sharps, as we have 

 none of them fortunately, but you can't go into a shepherd's hut in the 

 bush without making a very speedy acquaintance with them. Oh, 

 those flies ! 1 have totally changed my opinion of my Uncle Toby. 

 Instead of his being the benevolent Buffer I formerly innocently 

 thought him, I can now see that he was a perfect misanthrope, a man 

 actuated by the worst possible feelings towards his fellow- creatures 

 for allowing the blue-bottle to escape. The only thing in which this 

 country beats England is in the moonlight nights, which are certainly 

 glorious, and I enjoy them the more from the cessation of the attacks 

 of the flies. The mosquitoes I think nothing of; they are not nume- 

 rous, and evidently don't like me. 



February 17th, 1853. — We come home from work about half-past 

 five, dine and tea (it is but one meal), smoke our pipes and talk round 

 the camp-fire or read, and then retire to roost, and, until lately, 

 to sleep the sweetest sleep. That, alas ! is not the case now, for we 

 have recently had an irruption of F-sharps, which continue to murder 

 sleep most effectually. 1 thought the flies bad enough in all con- 

 science, but their annoyance lasted only until the evening, while the 

 other wretches annoy us day and night, — positively my left arm is, in 

 appearance, like one of my dear mothers' currant dumplings. I am 

 really ashamed to tell you, my dear father, that I have rather neg- 

 lected the capture of insects (excepting always the F-sharp's, which, 

 as Bacon says, " come home to one's business and bosoms"), but 

 I have not done so altogether. Fred. W. was taking an insect from a 

 tree the other day, when a man, who saw what he was about, ex- 

 claimed, " Lord ! I wouldn't touch one of them things for any money, 

 you don't know what harm they may do you. There's a d — d thing 

 here they calls a ' Triantelope,' haven't you ever seen it ? It is a big 

 spider, and if it bites you it will either kill you or makes you very ill." 

 I suppose by his " Triantelope," he meant the Tarentella, which is 

 said to be found in this colony. 



