The mouth consists of a pair of
thick fleshy lips, and two triangular horny lancets, answering to
the upper lip and tongue of other insects. This is applied
closely to the skin, a puncture is made with the lancets, and the
blood then sucked through between these into the oesophagus, the
circular spot which results coinciding with the shape of the
lips. In the course of a few days the red spots dry up, and the
skin in time becomes blackened with the endless number of
discoloured punctures that are crowded together. The irritation
they produce is more acutely felt by some persons than others. I
once travelled with a middle-aged Portuguese, who was laid up for
three weeks from the attacks of Pium; his legs being swelled to
an enormous size, and the punctures aggravated into spreading
sores.
A brisk wind from the east sprang tip early in the morning of the
22nd-- we then hoisted all sail, and made for the mouth of the
Rio Negro. This noble stream at its junction with the Amazons,
seems, from its position, to be a direct continuation of the main
river, while the Solimoens which joins at an angle and is
somewhat narrower than its tributary, appears to be a branch
instead of the main trunk of the vast water system.
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