100 THE CANADIAN NATUllALIST. 
¥lj, a small species of dipterous fiy^ with black body^ the 
legs ringed with black and white ( Simulia — ), whose bite is 
similar in its effects to that of the musquito^ but it does not 
usually come into our houses. There is also a very minute 
insect likewise dipterous^ with mottled wings^ the Sandfly, 
or Midget, so small as to be scarcely visible : they appear in 
myriads at nightfall, and bury their heads in the flesh ; their 
bite is not unlike a spark of fire, but it is not followed by 
tumours ; a slight inflammation continues for a few minutes, 
with itching. Neither of these two utters any sound as it 
approaches, so that their attack is still more insidious than 
that of the musquito. 
C — But is there no way of guarding against their as- 
saults ? are we altogether at their mercy ? 
F. — When they are too bad to be borne any longer, our 
housewives make what they call a smudge ; that is, little 
fires to windward of the house, covered with wet chips and 
earth, which, smothering the flame, make a dense smoke ; this 
being wafted by the wind around the house, prevents the 
approach of the flies, as they cannot abide smoke : so we 
tolerate one inconvenience to dispel a greater. There is no 
other help, but patience. Salt dissolved in water^ rubbed 
on a recent bite, prevents much of the evil effect. But we 
know little, after all, of this evil, compared with those bold 
and hardy men who first penetrated this vast wilderness, 
and set up their sohtary dwellings in the midst of the forest, 
before roads were cut, or clearings made, or marshes drained; 
when clouds of venomous insects rose out of the rank swamps, 
to which those we encounter are as nothing. I have heard 
some of the first settlers declare, that they did not dare to go 
out to work without a pine torch continually blazing on their 
hats, to keep, by its smoke and flame, a small space around their 
heads clear of these minute but formidable foes. But enough 
of them. — There is a tree, if I recollect rightly, somewhere 
