, and I,
being a new comer, was nearly devoured by them. Luckily, they do not
last more than a month, and it is only before rain that they are so
very annoying. I have seen children whose necks were one mass of sores,
from the poisonous nature of their bite: sheep, calves, and foals, are
sometimes killed by them. Nor is this, indeed, an unfrequent
occurrence. It must be, however, borne in mind that, as the country is
cleared up, and the woods recede, the flies disappear. In the clearings
along the front townships, the flies are not more troublesome than they
are in England.

The farm on which I now reside used to swarm terribly with flies,
lying, as it does, near the water; but, for the last three years, it
has been entirely free from them, especially from the black flies.*

[* These insects are always much worse, and more numerous, when the
spring is backward, and the floods are higher than usual. From close
observation, I believe the larvae are deposited during high water on
the rocks, when, as soon as the water falls, the heat of the sun
hatches the insects. I have remarked large stones, which had been under
water during the flood, covered over with small brown coloured cells,
exactly the shape, and very little bigger than a seed of buckwheat.
From out of these cells, on a sunny day, the flies rise in clouds, for
they bite through the envelope, and emancipate themselves. Being
provided with a sharp appetite, they will attack you the minute they
are at liberty. These pests begin to appear between the 10th of May and
1st of June, according to the earliness or lateness of the season.
Towards the end of June, numbers of small dragon-flies make their
appearance, which soon eat up all the black-flies, to which repast, you
may be sure, they are heartily welcome.]

A person who understands chopping, can save himself a good deal of
trouble and hard work by making what is called a plan-heap. Three or
four of these may be made on an acre, but not more. The largest and
most difficult trees are felled, the limbs only being cut off and
piled. Then all the trees that will fall in the same direction, should
be thrown along, on the top of the others, the more the better chance
of burning well. If you succeed in getting a good burn for your fallow,
the chances are, if your plan-heaps are well made, that they will be
mostly consumed, which will save a great many blows of the axe, and
some heavy logging.

CHAPTER VIII.

A LOG