In The Long Valley
Between, The Smooth And Colourless Clear Water River Wound Its Spiral
Course, Broken And Shattered By Encroaching Woods.
An exuberance of rich
herbage covered the soil and lofty trees climbed the precipice at our
feet, hiding its brink with their summits.
Impatient as we were and
blinded with pain we paid a tribute of admiration, which this beautiful
landscape is capable of exciting unaided by the borrowed charms of a calm
atmosphere, glowing with the vivid tints of evening.
We descended to the banks of the Clear Water River and, having encamped,
the two men returned to assist their companions. We had sometimes before
procured a little rest by closing the tent and burning wood or flashing
gunpowder within, the smoke driving the mosquitoes into the crannies of
the ground. But this remedy was now ineffectual though we employed it so
perseveringly as to hazard suffocation: they swarmed under our blankets,
goring us with their envenomed trunks and steeping our clothes in blood.
We rose at daylight in a fever and our misery was unmitigated during our
whole stay.
The mosquitoes of America resemble in shape those of Africa and Europe
but differ essentially in size and other particulars. There are two
distinct species, the largest of which is brown and the smallest black.
Where they are bred cannot easily be determined for they are numerous in
every soil. They make their first appearance in May and the cold destroys
them in September; in July they are most voracious and, fortunately for
the traders, the journeys from the trading posts to the factories are
generally concluded at that period.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 252 of 649
Words from 67978 to 68250
of 176017
