In the evening before the sun went down there was such a vast quantity of midges that it was unbelievable. It was as if they completely filled the air, especially in the damp meadows. They flew into my mouth, my nose, my eyes, and never got out of the way. It was not that they were particularly malicious biters but there were so many of them that it was impossible to breathe. When I grasped the air I caught myriads of them in my hand but they were all crushed; they were so small that I cannot provide a description of them. The local people called them “knort”.