mily had been present, he could not have refrained
from tearing off his trowsers.

The naturalist has been out the whole morning collecting, and a pretty
collection he has got--a perfect fortune upon his legs alone. There
are about a hundred ticks who have not yet commenced to feed upon him;
there are also several fine specimens of the large flat buffalo tick;
three or four leeches are enjoying themselves on the juices of the
naturalist; these he had not felt, although they had bitten him half an
hour before; a fine black ant has also escaped during the recent
confusion, fortunately without using his sting.

Oil is the only means of loosening the hold of a tick; this suffocates
him and he dies; but he leaves an amount of inflammation in the wound
which is perfectly surprising in so minute an insect. The bite of the
smallest species is far more severe than that of the large buffalo or
the deer tick, both of which are varieties.

Although the leeches in Ceylon are excessively annoying, and numerous
among the dead leaves of the jungle and the high grass, they are easily
guarded against by means of leech-gaiters: these are wide stockings,
made of drill or some other light and close material, which are drawn
over the foot and trowsers up to the knee, under which they are
securely tied. There are three varieties of the leech: the small
jungle leech, the common leech and the stone leech. The latter will
frequently creep up the nostrils of a dog while he is drinking in a
stream, and, unlike the other species, it does not drop off when
satiated, but continues to live in the dog's nostril. I have known a
leech of this kind to have lived more than two months in the nose of
one of my hounds; he was so high up that I could only see his tail
occasionally when lie relaxed to his full length, and injections of
salt and water had no effect on him. Thus I could not relieve the dog
till one day when the leech descended, and I observed the tail working
in and out of the nostril; I then extracted him in the usual way with
the finger and thumb and the tail of the coat.

I should be trespassing too much upon the province of the naturalist,
and attempting more than I could accomplish, were I to enter into the
details of the entomology of Ceylon; I have simply mentioned a few of
those insects most common to the every-day observer, and I leave the
description of the endless varieties of classes to those who make
entomology a study.