Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-15
INSECTS GUARD GOLD
APLAcER oiGGINGS MoNoPoLIZED BY
 MOSQUITOES.

A Plague That Drives the Workers Away
 From the Rich Sand of 8 South Ameri-
 can River-Natives Who Can Stand the
 Tortures Are Too Lazy to Work.
 Gold ill plenty may be found ill the sands of the Volador river, stream of moderate volume that comes tumbling from the snow line from the Sierra de St. Martha, ill South America, but though the lowland region and the river bed where the precious metal abounds in fabulous quantities are easily accessi- ble the mosquitoes are so thick and ter rible there that all attempts to rifle the sands of their gold have so far failed.
 Elisee Reclus, the celebrated French geographer, was the first to explore the plain about the VoladOr's mouth. It seemed like an earthly paradise at first, and the stinging insects were no more numerous than one migh5 have expect ed. But as the rainy season came on and the air grew hot and humid the mos quitoes appeared i'll incredible swarms NJ Reclus had thought of establishing an agricultural colony i'll the fertile 1owlands, but found the plague of in sects so unbearahle that he was forced to beat retreat and abandon his project.
 He was the diScOverer of this wonder ful stream, whose waters sweep over sands that are literally golden. He told the news to the French vice consul at Rio Hacla, and this official obtained the concession of this Eldorado. The dangers he was to encounter he knew perfectly we'll He took with him when he set out all ingeniously constructed gauge tent of large dimensions. For two days he tried to live under its shelter and watch the operations of his work men, who toilCd ill the stitiing heat, clothed i'll thick garments and protected by heavy boots, gloves and wells. At the end of the second day, however, both employer and employees with one accord gave up the struggle and retrcated.
 The next tn try to wiring fortune from these aurifcr0us sands was all Italian, who obtained permission from the vice consul referred to above. The Italian laughed at the idea of mosquitoes driv- | ing any one away from place where | gold could be picked up almost by the handful He started out with party ot l six, who shared with him his belief, and | so they took along no special protection against the insects. They endured for less than half an hour the awful torture and then fed They found their way | back to Rio Hacha with difficulty, for the eyes of five were so badly swollen that they were blind. The sixth's face was sight to behold, and Inc had to l pick out tho pathway with the aid of l one eye, which the mosquitoes had not l entirely closed.
 l Yet there arc human beings who can venture with impunity into this hell | whose guardian demons are mosquitoes, and these are some of the savage natives | of the mountains from whose rocky | steeps the river comes tumbling down, | These savages, who are mosquito proof, are rendered so by their bodies being | covered with the scales of that awful disease. leprosy. Strange to say, the mosquitoes will not touch them. But neither gold nor tho gauds of civlllza tion will tempt them to labor, and there is no human power apparently whlcE will drag them on from their rude caves on the mountain side and make them labor for the white men.
 It is an old and tl're saying that one might as we'll try to get along without furs in the arct.c reg. .Ons as without mosquito nets ill the tropics. Mosquito nets seem to have been of little avail however, in the instances related. The insects are said to have been both un
 usually large and unusually venomous
 and they came ill such myriads that they had the appearance of mist hanging over the waters of the river. The intense pain and action of the poison on the sys
 tenn speedily drive the strongest mad.
 One of the favorite tortures among the natives of the region about the val
 ley of the Volador is to strip their vic
 tim and bind him naked to a stake. II
 moment his body will be literally GOV
 cred with mosquitoes, and in hall
 hours time it will be enormously swell
 ed. The torture is indescribable. .-Nev
 York World.