Tombstone epitaph., 1890-07-26
MOSQl
0ur Circular Editor Reels
 Yarn.

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 versa'ion made some remark :.
 mosquitoes. ooh yes," said the cil
 cular editor, five have them in this country, and along the San Pedro they are larger and more vicions than
 anywhere in the world, l guess" " "Well," said the visitor, ''if they are any worse than along the Snake river, i'll Idaho, they are terrors and no mis- take. l was up in southern Idaho q few years ago and a party of us con cluded to go fishing in Snake river. There were fifteen or twenty ill the crowd and several women and chil
 dren among the number. We decided to stay over night and camp out and fitted ourselves out accordingly with some grub, few cooking utensils and a tent for the women. We were to catch the fish and the women were to cook them. Did we have anything to drink? Vel, that's funny question, but everybody knows that Snake river water Is no good to drink and we didn't try the experiment.. It was long in June and the weather was hot, the river low and fishing was supposed to be at its best. We were about ff- foaps n, ila, frOp1 tI,o r;,,or ,O ,,,, ,.nr,oI in the afternoon and arrived about dusk. Nothing occurred during the trip and everything was lovely until we were within a couple of hundred yards of the river and then we sud- denly woke up to the fact that we had got into the enemy's lines and would have to fight or run. But we didn't propose to turn back just then and were suon camped within few feet of the water, among the willows that grow thickly along the river. Mos quitoes were pretty thick but we thought they would bother us very little during the night. Some of the boys got out their tackle and bait and started ill to catch fish enough fer supper and the others started fire. Then the trouble commenced. It seemed as if the mosquito population of the entire world had been suddenly let loose around us and each one oi them possessed an uncomfortable de sire to sample our flesh or die in the attempt. Thousands, and 1 suppose hundreds of thousands, did die ill the next few minutes but millions came to the funeral and brought their rela- tives for several generations back The women and children were con- pelled to go into the tent and huddie together with pair of blankets over and around them as tightly as could be drawn. Occasionally the blanke's would have to be parted to admit of itOSIl dll anu eb VI lilC enemy would enter and cause excessive exercise and plain'ive cries until the mosquitoes were all killed, then the blankets would have to be parted again, with the same results, and this was kept up all night As for the men, we were having picnic all our own and one that we would have willingly shared with those who had put the fishing idea into our heads. We built numerous smokes and would stand in the smoke as long as we could hold our breath and then get out and fight again. Our pocket nasks were used pretty freely unil the bites on our lips prevented their opening and then we had to resCrt to opening them with the end of our fishing rods. Our hands soon swelled to such an extent that 1t was impOS sible to hold our rods out to fish and by this time the fires along the banks had attracted thousands of fish that were crowding each other in the effort to get nearer to the light. Our predica- ment was something never to be fOI- gotten. We were hungry and mad, with no immediate chances getting anything to eat till we got back to town, and the river was swarming with splendid fish seemingly just aching to be caught and fried. Then to add to our misery our Hasks were Aboat empty and it lacked several hours to daylight. We managed to pull through that awful night, some how, and at daybreak made nasty pre- parations for departure. As daylight increased the mosquitoes became more plentiful and more demOnstralive in their affection and more eager to make our pleasure trip one never to be for gotten. We then discovered why diff ferent fires that we had built had gone out so quickly after being lit. Each attempt had been frustrated by cOur- age worthy of something better as millions of the insects had sacrificed fhonSoi,oc for Yho col-o nf tboir