10 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
spite of gloves, clothes, and handkerchiefs, his 
body, and those of his companions, were ren- 
dered one entire wound, and that the irritation 
and swelling excited a considerable degree of 
fever. In a most sultry night, when not a breath 
of air was stirring, exhausted by fatigue, pain, 
and heat, he sought shelter in his carriage, and, 
though almost suffocated, dared not open the 
window. Swarms nevertheless got in, and, in 
spite of the handkerchiefs with which he had 
bound up his head, filled his mouth, nostrils, 
and ears. In the midst of his torment he lighted 
a lamp, which was extinguished in a moment by 
such a prodigious number, that their'carcasses 
filled the glass chimney and lay in a large heap 
over the burner. Can you conceive a much more ^ 
disagreeable and tormenting situation ? — Captain 
Stedman says, that in America, his soldiers were 
obliged to sleep with their heads thrust into holes 
in the earth, and their necks wrapped round with 
their hammocks. Humboldt informs us that be- 
tween the little harbour of Higuerote, and the 
mouth of the Rio Unare, the wretched inhabit- 
ants are accustomed to stretch themselves on the 
ground, and pass the night buried in the sand 
three or four inches deep, leaving out the head 
only, which they cover with a handkerchief. 
