Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Want Of
Concordance Between The Instruments And The Sensations Must Be
Attributed To The Continual Irritation Of The Skin Excited By The
Mosquitos.
An atmosphere filled with venomous insects always appears
to be more heated than it is in reality.
We were horribly tormented in
the day by mosquitos and the jejen, a small venomous fly (simulium),
and at night by the zancudos, a large species of gnat, dreaded even by
the natives. Our hands began to swell considerably, and this swelling
increased daily till our arrival on the banks of the Temi. The means
that are employed to escape from these little plagues are very
extraordinary. The good missionary Bernardo Zea, who passed his life
tormented by mosquitos, had constructed near the church, on a
scaffolding of trunks of palm-trees, a small apartment, in which we
breathed more freely. To this we went up in the evening, by means of a
ladder, to dry our plants and write our journal. The missionary had
justly observed, that the insects abounded more particularly in the
lowest strata of the atmosphere, that which reaches from the ground to
the height of twelve or fifteen feet. At Maypures the Indians quit the
village at night, to go and sleep on the little islets in the midst of
the cataracts. There they enjoy some rest; the mosquitoes appearing to
shun air loaded with vapours. We found everywhere fewer in the middle
of the river than near its banks; and thus less is suffered in
descending the Orinoco than in going up in a boat.
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