MOSQUITOES. 
145 
1849.] 
good parlours, several small sleeping-rooms, a large veran- 
dah, and a closed yard behind. We were warned that 
the mosquitoes were here very annoying, and we soon 
found them so, for immediately after sunset they poured 
in upon us in swarms, so that we found them unbear- 
able, and were obliged to rush into our sleeping-rooms, 
which we had kept carefully closed. Here we had some 
respite for a time, but they soon found their way in at 
the cracks and keyholes, and made us very restless and 
uncomfortable all the rest of the night. 
After a few days’ residence we found them more tor- 
menting than ever, rendering it quite impossible for us to 
sit down to read or write after sunset. The people here 
all use cow- dung burnt at their doors to keep away the 
praga,” or plague, as they very truly call them, it 
being the only thing that has any effect. Having now 
got an Indian to cook for us, we every afternoon sent 
him to gather a basket of this necessary article, and just 
before sunset we lighted an old earthen pan full of it at 
our bedroom door, in the verandah, so as to get as much 
smoke as possible, by means of which we could, by walk- 
ing about, pass an hour pretty comfortably. In the 
evening every house and cottage has its pan of burning 
dung, which gives rather an agreeable odour ; and as 
there are plenty of cows and cattle about, this necessary 
of life is always to be procured. 
We found the country here an undulating, sandy plain, 
in some places thickly covered with bushes, in others 
with larger scattered trees. Along the banks of the 
streams were some flat places and steep banks, all thickly 
clothed with wood, while at a distance of ten or twelve 
L 
