We
Sounded It With A Stick; It Was Four Feet Deep; We Lifted A Specimen
In Our Cupped Hands; It Seemed Reasonably Transparent, So We Decided
That The Time For Action Was Arrived.
But our ablutions were
suddenly interrupted by ten thousand punctures, like poisoned
needles, and the humming of myriads of over-grown mosquitoes, rising
in all directions from their native mud and slime and swarming to the
feast.
We were fain to beat a retreat with all possible speed.
We made toward the tents, much refreshed by the bath which the heat
of the weather, joined to our prejudices, had rendered very
desirable.
"What's the matter with the captain? look at him!" said Shaw. The
captain stood alone on the prairie, swinging his hat violently around
his head, and lifting first one foot and then the other, without
moving from the spot. First he looked down to the ground with an air
of supreme abhorrence; then he gazed upward with a perplexed and
indignant countenance, as if trying to trace the flight of an unseen
enemy. We called to know what was the matter; but he replied only by
execrations directed against some unknown object. We approached,
when our ears were saluted by a droning sound, as if twenty bee-hives
had been overturned at once. The air above was full of large black
insects, in a state of great commotion, and multitudes were flying
about just above the tops of the grass blades.
"Don't be afraid," called the captain, observing us recoil.
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