MU'S QU I TOES. 
285 
fion between New York and the country bor- 
dering on the St. Lawrence; it is emphatically 
called by the Indians, Caniad— Eri Gu amide, 
the mouth or door of the country. 
Skenesborough is most dreadfully infested 
with musquitoes; so many of them attacked 
us the first night of our sleeping there, that 
when we arose in the morning our faces and 
hands were covered all over with large pus¬ 
tules, precisely like those of a person in the 
small pox. This happened too, notwithstand¬ 
ing that the people of the house, before we 
went to bed, had taken all the pains possible to 
clear the room of them, by fumigating it with 
the smoke of green wood, andjafterwagds se¬ 
curing the windows with gauze blinds ; .and 
even on the second night, although we de¬ 
stroyed many dozens of them on the walls, 
after a similar fumigation had been made,, yet 
we suffered nearly as much. These insects 
were of a much larger size than any I ever 
saw elsewhere, and their bite was uncommonly 
venomous. General Washington told me, 
' i . 
that he never was so much annoyed by mus¬ 
quitoes in any part of America as in Skenesbo¬ 
rough, for that they used to bite through the 
thickest boot. The situation ofthe,place is 
indeed peculiarly favourable for them, being 
just on the margin of a piece of water, al¬ 
most stagnant, and shaded with thick woods. 
