int to point, and also to penetrate into the
smallest aperture. They are said to possess an acute sense of smell,
and guided by this they approach the traveller the moment he sits down.
They will crowd up from all quarters, until fifty or a hundred crawl
upon one person in a few minutes' time, so that one is kept busy in
removing them as fast as they appear.

They occur in greatest numbers in moist shady woods, and cover the
leaves when heavy dew is on them. In rain they are more numerous than
at other times, and then they infest the paths; whereas in dry weather
they betake themselves into the streams, or the thickly-shaded interior
of the jungle.

Those who know not their haunts, their love of blood, their keenness and
immense numbers, cannot understand the disgust and annoyance experienced
from them by travellers. They get into the hair, hang by the eyelids,
crawl up the legs, or down the back, and fasten themselves under the
instep of the foot; and if not removed, gorge themselves with blood till
they roll off. Often the traveller finds his boots filled with these
hideous creatures when arrived at the end of his day's journey. Their
wound at the time produces no pain, but it causes a sore afterwards,
which is frequently months in healing, and leaves a scar that remains
for years!

Many antidotes are adopted, and tobacco-juice or snuff will keep them
off when applied over the skin; but in passing through moist woods and
the long wet jungle-grass, such applications require to be continually
renewed, and it becomes so troublesome and vexatious to take these
precautions, that most travellers prefer wearing long boots, tucking in
their trousers, and then keeping a good lookout for these insidious
crawlers.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE MUSK-DEER.

A few days' more journeying up the mountains brought our travellers to
the limits of the forest. They once more looked upon the snowy peaks of
the great central chain towering up into the clouds. I say once more--
for they had already seen these peaks from the plains of India while
still more than a hundred miles distant from them; but, as they
approached nearer, and while advancing through the foot-hills, the
snow-covered mountains had no longer been in sight!

This may appear a puzzle, but it is very easily explained. When very
near to a house you will be unable to see the steeple of a church that
is behind it; whereas by going to a greater distance from the hous