dwelling. No wheat grows in this country. Yet the ant piles up small pebbles of the size and form of grains of wheat in hills a foot high and three or four in diameter, which inclines me to believe that they use both for the construction of their cells. In either case the paternal providence of God is manifest. They display as much foresight in providing dwellings that are out of the reach of humidity and inundations as in laying up food for future wants. It is probable, however, that here they find food of another kind, and this might easily be ascertained. Fleas are not known in the mountains, but there is another sort of vermin nearly allied to it, to which I have alluded in one of my former letters.
And what shall I say of mosquitoes? I have suffered so much from them, that I cannot leave them unnoticed. In the middle of the day they do not trouble the traveler, if he keep aloof from the shade and walk in the burning sun. But at nightfall they light on him, and hang on him till morning, like leeches sucking his blood. There is no defense against their darts, but to hide under a buffalo skin, or wrap one's self up in some stuff which they cannot pierce, and run the risk of being smothered.-When green or rotten wood can be procured, they may be driven away by smoke, but in such case the traveler himself is smoked, and in spite of all he can do his eyes are filled with tears. As soon as the smoke ceases, they return to the charge till other wood is provided and thrown on the fire, so that the traveler's sleep is frequently interrupted, which proves very annoying after the fatigue of a troublesome journey. Another species of insects, called frappe d' abord or buffalo gnats, are found by myriads in the desert, and are not less troublesome than the mosquito. They are so small that they are scarcely perceptible, and light on any part of the body that is uncovered, penetrating even into the eyes, ears
and nostrils. To guard against them the traveler, even in the warmest weather, wears gloves, ties a handkerchief over his forehead, neck and ears, and smokes a short pipe or a