474 
GNAT. 
duced to sleep with our windows open, these insects 
prove troublesome by humming about our beds and 
raising our fears lest we should be bitten in the night ; 
but how trifling, how insignificant, is the cause of 
this fear when compared with the variety which in- 
fests other climates, and is known by the name of 
the musqueto! This indeed is justly dreaded by the 
inhabitants, as hardly any precaution seems suf- 
ficient to defend them from its attacks, or any 
means effectual to exclude it from their dwellings. 
Smoke has been found the best material to drive 
them to a distance ; but then the remedy is nearly 
as bad as the disease, since it is almost necessary to 
choke yourself in order to succeed by this method. 
The poor Laplander, whose summer is of so short 
a duration, is tormented beyond measure by this 
plague. Swarms innumerable are brought to life 
by the sun’s influence on the marshy tracts of that 
dreary country ; and these, insinuating themselves 
into every hut, deprive the inhabitants of the little 
comfort their wretched dwellings afford. The cat- 
tle are far from escaping their share of the tor- 
ment ; and the rein-deer are rendered so uneasy by 
these flies, that, while one person is employed in 
milking them, another is obliged to hold a firebrand 
close to the animal, that the musquetoes may be 
kept at a distance. This ability to do mischief 
seems confined to the female, who alone is capable 
of making a wound and sucking the blood from it. 
The puncture is succeeded by violent itching, the 
part swells, and the skin Sometimes blisters and 
