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direction he could outstrip the fly which, forced back by the cur- 
xent could not so easily follow him. At break of day, and in the 
evening, it was curious to observe these conflicts. He observes 
how admirable it is that these Insects are secured from the cold 
by their provident Creator, by the dense warm covering, and 
the thick matted long hairs of the Rhein-deeFs back, and that 
the back and not the sides is chosen for their nidus, otherwise the 
animal by lying down would crush them. And the long hair of 
these animals in summer, standing upright, and detached as it 
were from the skin, enables the Fly to deposit her egg between, 
on the more exposed and naked parts. And the times of their 
formation in the backs is the time of the rhein-deer shedding his 
horns ; and the stumps being then soft and tender, prevents his 
destroying them. Linnaeus also compares its effects to that of a 
tontanelle or issue, formed by a pea in the human subject ; and 
how wonderful, he observes, it is that so large an animal, which 
might defy the strength of man, cannot nevertheless defend him¬ 
self from, or resist the attacks of this small Fly. 
He says that a third part of the rhein-deer, if I understand 
him rightly, are destroyed by this fly, occasioning the disease the 
Laplanders call Curbmci, the name they give to this fly. Their 
effects perhaps in this respect are exaggerated, and the deaths, 
from whatever cause, too easily attributed to this troublesome 
insect, as the death of horses has been too often to the Equi, by 
the ignorant. 
Some farther circumstances respecting them appear in the 
Lachesis Lapponica, or Lapland Tour of Linnasus, the translation 
of which from the Swedish has been lately published by Sir James 
Edward Smith, Vol. II. p. 38 :—“ These animals are sometimes 
attacked with a vertigo or dizziness in the head, which causes 
them to run round and round continually. The people assured 
me, that such of them as run according to the course of the sun, 
may be expected to get the better of the disorder ; but those 
p 
