United States or Kuwait ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There is no mistake as to the meaning and identity of pulex irritans, confound him! What if we should look in, some day, on the Scarabeeist, as he calls himself? said I. -The fact is the Master had got agoing at such a rate that I was willing to give a little turn to the conversation. Oh, very well, said the Master, I had some more things to say, but I don't doubt they'll keep.
There is no mistake as to the meaning and identity of pulex irritans, confound him! What if we should look in, some day, on the Scarabeeist, as he calls himself? said I. The fact is the Master had got agoing at such a rate that I was willing to give a little turn to the conversation. Oh, very well, said the Master, I had some more things to say, but I don't doubt they'll keep.
We went to the hills south south-westerly, and had a waterless camp in the porcupine, triodia, spinifex, Festuca irritans, and everything-else-abominable, grass; 95 degrees in shade.
I am told that the term "spinifex," though generally employed by those who have the pleasure of the acquaintance of the plant, is wrongly used. I do not know its right name, and have seen it described as "Spinifex," "Porcupine Grass," "TRIODIA," "TRIODIA PUNGENS," and "FESTUCA IRRITANS." Why such a wretched, useless plant should have so many names I cannot say.
The small of the back aches, and it is literally in the sweat of your brow that you take your diversion. After all, there are many blank days, when the salmon will look at no fly, or when you encounter the Salmo irritans, who rises with every appearance of earnest good-will, but never touches the hook, or, if he does touch it, runs out a couple of yards of line, and vanishes for ever.
What says the poet? There's an accommodating fish, In pool or stream, by rock or pot, Who rises frequent as you wish, At "Popham," "Parson," or "Jock Scott," Or almost any fly you've got In all the furred and feathered clans. You strike, but ah, you strike him not He is the Salmo irritans!
In the first place the feet sink in the loose and sandy soil, in the second it is densely covered with the hideous porcupine; to avoid the constant prickings from this the walker is compelled to raise his feet to an unnatural height; and another hideous vegetation, which I call sage-bush, obstructs even more, although it does not pain so much as the irritans.
Approaching the pillar from the south, the traveller must pass over a series of red sandhills, covered with some scrubs, and clothed near the ground with that abominable vegetable production, the so-called spinifex or porcupine grass botanically, the Triodia, or Festuca irritans.
But the resources of one-and-twenty are not easily daunted, even by the presence of the CIMEX LECTULARIUS or the PULEX IRRITANS. I inquired for a LAQUAIS DE PLACE, some human being to consort with was the most pressing of immediate wants. As luck would have it, the very article was in the dreary courtyard, lurking spider-like for the innocent traveller just arrived.
That hideous and objectionable vegetation, the Triodia irritans, or spinifex, was prevalent even in places where the waters sometimes flowed. We have had plenty of this enemy ever since we left Mount Gould. No natives were seen, or appear to exist here. A few strips of good country occur occasionally on the banks of the river, but not in areas of sufficient extent to be of any use for occupation.
Word Of The Day