The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-24
LIFE IN THE WOODS
THINGS oFINFEREsT TO THE AN-
 CHER AND HUNTER.

swarms of Insects Make Life Miserable for sportsmen in Michigan, wiseon- sin and Minnesota-ReIief Expected Soon.
 In the woods of the northwest this is likely to be known hereafter as the mosquito year. . :. A... +- .c 2.
 The drought in the Adirondacks, with the accompaniment of scattered forest fires. has had the effect of destroying insect life, and existence there, now that rain has fallen. is more than en- durable. In the northwest, however, there has been plenty Of rain all through the spring, vegetation, always enormous. is now more than usually lush, the ground surface, made up for two feet or more of rotting timber and moss, has been soaked for yard down, and every sort of seasonable insect is in the air. ....- s r.. *
 Tn 1900 there was a great amount of Insect life in the northwestern forests. Sand-flies, deer flies, black flies and mosquitoes were plentiful. They made life burden, not only to anglers, who were in some measure prepared for it, but to wild animal life as well.
 Bears and wolves were driven from the deeper recesses of the tamaraclS swanlps. finding existence impossible there. and even on the uplands. or wooded hills, the deer were forced out and betook themselves to the lakes, where they got temporary relief by burying themselves in the waters until only their nostrils stuck out In fact, every form of the northwestern fauna took to the water, and tven wildcats, which do not like cold water any bet ter than tame cats, got little ease by wading in and keeping their fur wet
 The season of three years ago, how ever, is not to be compared to the pres ent season for pestiferous insects. In every part of the west where deer flies. black flies and sand flies are commonly found they exist now in sWarms, and the nnosouitoes are terrors They seem to be pretty equally distributed throughout the northern parts of the wooded states of Michigan, Wisconsin hnd Minnesota
 The prevalence of vicious insects has worked a hardship upon the keepers of the little hotels scattered about the for ests. Hundreds of guests have gone home, not because dissatisfied with the fishing, though that has been poor, but because they object to being eaten alive.
 Luckily for the sylvan inn men, the Insect time will end by force of nature pretty shortly. There will be few mos quitoes or flies by the middle of July or < the 20th, say. and by August 10 there will be none at alL So the rodmen and long g-ane-pole men can go back to the woods then and everything will be SC. rene once more.
 Tn the black fly regions the suffering is now intense. The black fly, like the deer fly, carries stiletto and brings blood from the puncture. It gives 3 sharp, lancet-like pain to the sufferer and pursues him with a savage animos- itv yielding only to a gun or club, al though 1t does not leave behind it the - ~ of the mosquito.
 It is q Srapid and persistent insect pursuing it's quarry for miles along the trails. and three black flies have the capacity to work and feel liketa thou sand. just as a half dozen coyotes in full cry will sound like a. million. This insect however. is not so experR at get. ting through the crevices of cabins, un- der tent clothes and through the inter- stices of nets as the mosquito; it is not so industrious at night, and it yields more readily to the well known smoke treatment.
 The deer fly and the sand fly have each peculiarities but they hurt con. sllfedly, and in this are like their cousin pirates. It is the deer fly which is most often responsible for driving the ani mals to the lakes.
 They are not any fonder of deel blood than of COW blood or horse blood and they would kill any or all of then but for the protection of the water Thew would kill an elephant if the! could get him and keep him in dr! place.
 Their probosces are longer than tht bills of the mosquitoes or black flies will go through tougher substances and penetrate to depth that is remarkable when the size of the fly Is considered It is, however, only dangerous in tn, open and can be kept out of a tent witt little trouble. A small smoke made a the door will be generally sufficient tt < drive 1t away, though of course when 2 man is out in a boat trolling for mus kallonge or casting for bass he can fist only with one hand and must fight witt the other.
 One of the strongest and most poison. ous of the insects common to the north erf parts of Wisconsin and Michigan alike, though more plentiful in som, places than in others, is minute gnat of brownish hue, that possesses tho attribute of practical invisibility. It 1, not to be seen in the air, except by hart gazing. and when on the skin has to b, hunted for scientifically, though tn neighborhood of the bite is appreciabI enough.
 Even on the skin of white man it i difficult to find this insect, and on tn, skin of an Indian it must be looked fol with microscope. This is the ia, northern gnat that the Indians cal s'nosim." an abbreyiation of "no se him" or you cannot see him. Lik, B good many other Indian corruption. z and condensations of English sentences the name Is perfectly descriptive of tht villains appearance. though it does no describe it's effects. 4.
 Nosims. or flies or mosquitoes, how ever. are all chiefs in their particular lines and able to make the angler lon, for his club. It is now demonstrated