he 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), and at night by the
zancudos, a large species of gnat, dreaded even by the natives.

"At different hours of the day you are stung by different species.
Every time that the scene changes, and, to use the simple expression of
the missionaries, other insects `mount guard,' you have a few minutes--
often a quarter of an hour, of repose. The insects that disappear have
not their places instantly supplied by their successors. From half-past
six in the morning till live in the afternoon the air is filled with
mosquitos. An hour before sunset a species of small gnats--called
tempraneros, because they appear also at sunrise--take the place of the
mosquitos. Their presence scarcely lasts an hour and a half. They
disappear between six and seven in the evening. After a few minutes'
repose, you feel yourself stung by zancudos, another species of gnat,
with very long legs. The zancudo, the proboscis of which contains a
sharp-pointed sucker, causes the most acute pain, and a swelling that
remains several weeks.

"The means that are employed to escape from these little plagues are
very extraordinary. 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 mosquitos appearing to shun air loaded
with vapours.

"Between the little harbour of Higuerote and the mouth of the Rio Unare
the wretched inhabitants 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.

"At Mandanaca we found an old missionary, who told us with an air of
sadness that he had had his `twenty years of mosquitos' in America. He
desired us to look at his legs, that we might be able to tell one day
beyond sea `what the poor monks suffer in the forests of Cassiquiare.'
Every sting leaving a small darkish brown spot, his legs were so
speckled that it was difficult to recognise the whiteness of his skin,
through the spots of coagulated blood!"

Just such torments as the great Prussian traveller suffered from insects
in the forests of South America, our plant-hunters had to endure while
passing through the humid woods of the Lower Himalayas