FLIES STOPPED A TRAIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10238, 30 August 1909, Page 2

FLIES STOPPED A TRAIN.

A few days ago the Grand Trunk flyer going East was in hard luck. At Napanee the steam box on the big engine got overworked, or something, and refused to continue the journey. The timely arrival of a freight train helped. The ears were shunted to a siding and the freight engine brought into commission on the express, taking it as far as Brockville, when another large engine was secured. Now comes the peculiar part of the troubles of that train. TVhen about twenty miles out of Cornwill it ran into a sea of peculiar flies. There were millions of. them —perhaps billions, but the train was going so fast it was impossible to count them. The cars became quite dark as the tram plunged through the mass of inserts, and then the train came to another sudden stop. The engine was full of flies. The little things were ground into a mass in the driving rod. They were in everything on the engine. The train had been ploughing through; the flies at a mile a minute for several miles. The track was covered with crushc 1 insects and the engine wheels baulked at going round on it. After a little persuasion-and a lot of cleaning up, the train went upon its way again. On arrival at Montreal the engine present«d a truly curious spectacle. The bars of the cowcatcher were filled right up with flies. On the front of the engine j they were several inches thick.