XI 
SAN CARLOS 
369 
now and then shaken by a convulsive shudder, his 
pulse was gaining strength. When he woke up 
he was quite out of danger, although he still com- 
plained of occasional shooting pains and fancied he 
must inevitably die ; but a cup of strong coffee 
completed the cure and the next day he was going 
about as usual. 
[About this time, having been over six months 
in San Carlos and the neighbourhood. Spruce col- 
lected together in his Journal his various notes as 
to numerous insect plagues which abound in the 
district and seriously interfere with personal com- 
fort and power of work. It must be noted that 
since his arrival in the Spanish-speaking districts 
belonging to Venezuela, and thenceforth through- 
out his travels, he uses the word "mosquito" (as 
do all the inhabitants) for various small biting 
flies ranging in size from what we term sand-flies 
up to horse-flies, while for the gnat-like insects 
which we call mosquitoes the local term zancudos " 
(long-legged flies) is used. It will be seen that 
in this region of the Upper Rio Negro the former 
group are much more numerous and a much greater 
plague " than the latter. I give here these notes 
as being interesting in themselves and as serving 
to elucidate what must have been the still greater 
"plague" he encountered on the Orinoco.] 
Insect Plagues on the Rio Negro 
Since the Casiquiari began to fall (July 28) 
there has been no lack of mosquitoes at San Carlos, 
but since the first partial rise, i.e. since September 4, 
they have been so abundant as seriously to inter- 
VOL. I 2 B 
