PREVALENCE OF T1IE PLAGUE OP MOSQUITOS. 
279 
fegion, where the mean heat is below 19* or 20° ; and that, 
With few exceptions, they shun the blaclc waters , . and dry 
and unwooded spots * The atmosphere swarms with them 
much more in the Upper than in the Lower Orinoco, 
because in the former the river is surrounded with thick 
forests on its hanks, and the skirts of the forests are not 
separated from the river by a barren and extensive beach. 
The mosquitos diminish on the New Continent with the 
diminution of the water, and the destruction of the woods; 
but the effects of these changes are as slow as the progress 
of cultivation. The towns of Angostura, Nueva Barcelona, 
and Mompox, where from the want of police, the streets, the 
great squares, and the interior of court-yards are overgrown 
With brushwood, are sadly celebrated for the abundance ot 
z ancudos. . , 
People horn in the country, whether whites, mulattoes, 
hegroes, or Indians, all suffer from the sting of these insects. 
But as cold does not render the north ot Europe uninha- 
bitable, so the mosquitos do not prevent men from dwelling 
in the countries where they abound, provided that, by then? 
situation and government, they afford resources lor agricul- 
ture and industry. The inhabitants pass their lives m com- 
plaining of the insufferable torment of the mosquitos, yet, 
Notwithstanding these continual complaints, they seek, and 
even with a sort of predilection, the commercial towns ot 
llTompox, Santa Marta, and Bio de la Hacha. Such is the 
force of habit in evils which we suffer every hour of the day, 
that the three missions of San Borja, Atures, and Esmeralda, 
where, to make use of an hyperbolical expression ot the 
monks, “there are more mosquitos than air,”* would no 
doubt become flourishing towns, if the Orinoco afforded 
Planters the same advantages for the exchange of produce, 
as the Ohio and the Lower Mississippi. . ‘ 
It is a curious fact, that the whites born in the torrid 
*one may walk barefoot with impunity, in the same apart- 
* Trifling modifications in the waters, or in the air, often appear to 
Prevent the development of the mosquitos. Mr. Bowdich remarks that 
mere are none at Coomassie, in the kingdom of the Ashantees, though the 
*°wn is surrounded by marshes, and though the thermometer keeps up 
between seventeen and twenty-eight centesimal degrees, day and night. 
+ Mas tnoscas que aire. 
