On the morning of the 17th of September, 1831, a small dipterous insect, belonging to Meigen's genus _Chlorops_, and nearly allied to, if not identical with, his _C. læta_, appeared suddenly, and in such immense quantities, in one of the upper rooms of the Provost's Lodge, in King's College, Cambridge, that the greater part of the ceiling toward the window of the room was so thickly covered as not to be visible. They entered by a window looking due north, while the wind was blowing steadily N. N. W. So it appears they came from the direction of the River Cam, or rather came with its current.[967]
In the summer of 1834, which season was remarkable in England for its swarms and shoals of insects, the air was constantly filled, says a writer in The Mirror, with millions of small delicate Flies, and the sea in many places, particularly on the Norfolk coasts, was perfectly blackened by the amazing shoals. The length of these masses was not determined; but they were, it is asserted, at least a league broad. It is said the oldest fishermen of those seas never remembered having seen or heard of such a phenomenon.[968]
Capt. Dampier calls the natives of New Holland the "poor winking people of New Holland," and concludes his description of them with the following observations: "Their eyelids are always half closed, to keep the Flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them off they will creep into one's nostrils, and mouth, too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other people, and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads, as if they were looking at something over them."[969]
In a house at Zaffraan-craal, Dr. Sparrman suffered so much from the common House-fly, _Musca domestica_, which, in the south of Africa, frequently appears in such prodigious numbers as to cover almost entirely the walls and ceilings, that, as he asserts, it was impossible for him to keep within doors for any length of time. To get rid of these troublesome pests, the natives resort to a very ingenious contrivance. It is thus related by the above-mentioned traveler: "Bunches of herbs are hung up all over the ceiling, on which the Flies settle in great numbers; a person then takes a linen net or bag, of a considerable depth, fixed to a long handle, and, inclosing in it every bunch, shakes it about, so that the Flies fall down to the bottom of the bag: when, after several applications of it in this manner, they are killed by a pint or a quart at a time, by dipping the bag into scalding hot water."[970]