282 
BLUEFIELDS. 
which ran in and out among the fur with great 
agility ; it appeared as if the hair actually separated 
and opened spontaneously for their admission. 
MUSQUITOES. 
These troublesome insects seem nearly equally 
annoying throughout the New World. I do not think 
them at all worse in Jamaica, than in Canada or 
Newfoundland, perhaps not so bad. In marshy 
places, even in England, the punctures of these minute 
tormentors (for Musquitoes are merely Gnats)* are 
as painful, and perhaps as numerous, as in many parts 
of Jamaica. Some situations are of course more 
subject to their presence than others. Bluefields, 
situated on a rising ground, open and exposed to the 
invigorating sea-breeze, enjoys a remarkable immu- 
nity from them. The humid forest harbours them, 
especially in the mountains ; and in many cases the 
roads are almost quite free from them, where if you 
step into the wood on either side though only a few 
paces, you would presently be surrounded by their 
shrill trumpets, and covered with their bites. There 
is a good deal of difference in the character of the 
wounds inflicted by different species : those that 
frequent the lowlands {Culex pungens for example) 
are of larger size, sing with a graver sound, and insert 
the proboscis often without any present pain, but a 
* Humboldt’s remark that the term Musquito is not given to the 
Culex, but to the Simulium, though it may be true of South America, 
certainly does not apply to Jamaica, or to the Northern Continent, 
where both these genera are but too well known. 
