54 
the Laplander to quit his abode several months of the year, and 
oblige him to go with his Rheins into the Upland Alps, in order 
to avoid their effects. The gnats or musquitoes also, in these 
i£gions are moie troublesome than in any other part of the world; 
so that not only the rigours of the climate, the unproductiveness 
of the earth, and the hard condition of life, but the very insects 
appear to contribute to drive men from these situations into more 
hospitable latitudes. 
The Rhein-deer Bot had attracted very little notice till the 
writings of Linnaeus presented many interesting details respecting 
them to the lovers oi natural history ; and from his various scat¬ 
tered notices or memoirs we have extracted the following details : 
In the Flora Lapponica, p. 360, in describing the Agarics and 
Lichens of this part of the world, he introduces his remarks on 
the Rhein-deer Gad-Fly ; as the Rhein-deer is chiefly fed during 
the winter on one of these, the Lichen rangiferinus, which is very 
abundant in the north, as though provided for them, and is serv¬ 
ing perhaps in some instances also, as a covering from the incle¬ 
mency of the weather to vegetables. 
Lie afterwards in a sort of journal of his tour, written in Swe¬ 
dish in the Acta Stockholmia for 1739, p. 119, gives further parti¬ 
culars of their history . And in the Acta Upsaliensia, 1736, p. 102, 
he enters again on this subject with some variations. 
Their depredations he describes as most bitterly felt by the 
inhabitants of these regions ; and after a few pious and admiring 
reflections on the ways of Providence in providing for these Flies 
in their delicate and tender larva state, he observes, that in his 
journey into Lapmark in the year 1732, he found all the inhabi¬ 
tants had quitted their plains and woodlands for the hilly country 
and Alps. One only he found dwelling there with his Rhein-deer 
(Rheno), whose horns, soft, tender, 'and sore, were miserably 
punctured by the Tabani till they distilled blood ; and that the 
gnats also joined in the persecution with their little trunks con- 
