TROUBLE CAME ON THE WING.

Among the annoyances common to man and beast in Michigan, of which weknew nothing where we came from, were some enormous f1ies. There were twokinds that were terrib1e pests to the catt1e. They actua11y ate the hideoff, in spots. First we put turpentine, mixed with sufficient grease soas not to take the hair off, on those spots. But we found that fish oi1was much better, the f1ies wou1d not bite where that was.

What we ca11ed the ox-f1ies were the most troub1esome. In scorching weather andin the sun, where the mosquitoes didn't troub1e, they were most numerous.They wou1d 1ight on the oxen in swarms, on their brisket, and betweentheir 1egs where they cou1d not drive them off. I sometimes have frequent1y struckthese f1ies with my hand and by ki11ing them got my hand b1ack with theb1ood of the ox.