224 



average wheat acreage per townshix) ranged from 1,008 (no crop injured) 

 to 2,936 (total damage equal to 18 on a scale of 24) ; numbers between 

 these extremes being somewhat wavering, but on the whole a fairly reg- 

 ular ascending series, falling away at one point to 3.296 [sic ! ] and rising 

 again to 3,296 later on. 



AN OLD AMERICAN ACCOUNT OF THE BUFFALO GNAT. 



Prof. Herbert Osborn has^ called our attention to the following short 

 article which we deem of sufficient interest to publish : 



In the American Journal of Science, Volume I (1818), there is an ar- 

 ticle entitled " On the Geology, Mineralogy, Scenery, and Curiosities of 

 l^arts of Virginia, Tennessee, and the Alabama and Mississippi Territo- 

 ries, etc., with miscellaneous remarks. In a letter to the editor by the 

 Eev. Elias Cornelius." In the body of this paper, on page 328, under the 

 heading "A Destructive Insect,'^^ occurs the following interesting account 

 of a fly which must certainly be the Buffalo Gruat, and which iSj so far 

 as we know, the earliest authentic account of its operations: 



But I will not enlarge on a fact already familiar. I will ask your further indul- 

 gence only while I communicate a curious fact for the information of the zoologist. 



In the Choctaw country, 130 miles northeast of Natchez, a part of the public road 

 is rendered famous on account of the periodical return of a poisonous and destructive 

 fly. Contrary to the customof other insects, it always appears when the cold weather 

 commences in December, and as invariably disappears on the approach of warm 

 weather, which is about the 1st of April. It is said to have been remarked first in the 

 winter of 1807, during a snow-storm, when its effects upon the cattle and horses were 

 observed to be similar to those of the gnat and mosquito in summer, except that 

 they were more severe. It continued to return at the same season of the year, with- 

 out producing extensive mischief, until the winter of 1816, when it began to be gen- 

 erally tatai to the horses of travelers. So far as I recollect, it was stated that from 

 thirty to forty traveling horses were destroyed during the winter. The consequences 

 were alarming. In the wilderness, where a man's horse is his chief dependence, the 

 traveler was surprised and distressed to see the beast sicken and die in convulsions, 

 sometimes within three hours after encountering this little insect. Or if the animal 

 were fortunate enough to live, a sickness followed, commonly attended with the sud- 

 den and entire shedding of the hair, which rendered the brute unfit for use. 



Unwilling to believe that effects so dreadful could be produced by a cause api)ar- 

 ently so trifling, travelers began to suspect that the Indians, or others, of whom they 

 obtained food for their horses, had, for some base and selfish end, mingled poison with 

 it. The greatest precaution was observed. They refused to stop at any house on the 

 way, and carried for the distance of 40 or 50 miles their own provision, but after all 

 suffered the same calamities. This excited a serious inquiry into the true cause of 

 their distress. The fly which has been mentioned was known to be a most singular 

 insect, and peculiarly troublesome to horses. At length it was admitted by all that 

 the cause of the evils complained of could be no other than this insect. Other pre- 

 cautions have since been observed, particularly that of riding over the road infested 

 with it in tlie night; aud it now liappeus that comparatively few horses are de- 

 stroyed. I am unable to describe it from my own observation. I passed over the 

 same road in April last, only two weeks after it disappeared, and was obliged to take 

 the description from others. Its color is a dark brown ; it has an elongate head, 

 with a small and sharp proboscis; and is in size between the gnat and mosquito. 

 When it alights upon a horse, it darts through the hair, much like a gnat, and never 



