85 



annoyance to man and beast. Their bites often occasion an Erysipelas, both 

 painful and dangerous. L * 



"These insects, however, are never observed when the mercury is below 

 the 6o°. 



"I do not know the degree of cold which renders bugs inactive, but have 

 been kept awake by them at Salem as late as the ioth of November." 



Henry Wansey (Wiltshire Clothier) "Journal of an Excursion 

 to the United States of North America in the summer of 

 1794." Salisbury pub. 1796, Page 98. 



"J paid five dollars and went in the stage called the Industry. All the way 

 to Newark, (nine miles) is a very flat marshy country, intersected with 

 rivers ; many cedar swamps abounding with musketos, which bit our legs and 

 hands exceedingly ; where they fix, they will continue sucking your blood, 

 if not disturbed, till they swell to four times their ordinary size, when they 

 absolutely fall off and burst, from their fulness." 



Isaac Weld, Jr. "Travels Through the States," 1795, 1796 and 

 1797. London, 1799. Page 150: 



"This part of the state as far as Newark, is on the whole well cultivated, 

 and scattered in different places are some excellent farm houses ; a good 

 deal of uncleared land, however, still remains. Beyond Newark the country 

 is extremely flat and marshy. Between the town and the Posaick River 

 there is one marsh, which alone extends upwards of twenty miles, and is 

 about two miles wide where.', you pass over it. The road is here formed 

 with large logs of wood laid close together, and on each side are ditches 

 to keep it dry. /This was the first place where we met with mosquitoes 

 and they annoyed us not a little in passing. * * *." 



1808. Salmagundi. Memorandums. For a tour to be entitled 

 "The Stranger in New Jersey," or Cockney Traveling, 

 by Jeremy Cockloft, the Younger: 



"Newark — noted for its fine breed of fat mosquitoes — sting through the 

 thickest boot — story about gallynipers." 



John Melish. "Travels in the United States." Philadelphia, 

 1 81 5. Page 139, Volume 1 : 



"Wle took our departure at 9 o'clock, from a little town called Jersey 

 which is the landing place from New York, and travelled a few miles 

 through country rather stony and sandy to Bergen, a small village having 

 a church and said to be inhabited mostly by Dutch people. A little further 

 on, we reached Hackensack River, which we passed by a toll-bridge, and 

 immediately entered into a very extensive swamp, through which the road 

 is cut at a considerable expense. This swamp is said to be fifty miles long 

 and about four broad, and abounds with grass of a very strong kind, but it 

 must be difficult to gather it. We saw, however, that it had been all cut 



