GNAT. 475 
forms a sore. Those who enter the woods without 
defending their face and hands from their attacks, 
are immediately covered and tormented by them 
beyond description ; they crowd on every part, and 
inflict their stings without mercy, so that the faces 
of the persons on their return are so disfigured as 
hardly to be known. This description, to those 
unacquainted with the effects of these insects, may 
appear like romancing ; but the traveller who has 
visited the West Indies, or any of those climates in- 
fested with this plague, will testify as much, and 
readily acknowledge that he has been more afraid 
of a few of these little creatures than of a host of 
larger animals. Musqueto curtains of a fine texture 
are used to defend the sleeper in the more civilized 
parts of the world, while the simple Laplander is 
obliged to be content with a less costly contrivance: 
he fixes a leather thong to the poles which support 
his tent, and with this he raises his canvass quilt to 
a proper height, so that its sides touch the ground ; 
then creeping under the shelter which it affords 
him, he contrives to pass the night in tolerable se- 
curity. 
This variety is rather larger than the common 
gnat, and is the pest of all hot climates, as well as 
of those near the poles, where the summer is but of 
short duration, but where the sun for a season never 
sets. 
