The Arctic Prairies

anding Journal for June

e trees are fully leaved, flowers are blooming, birds are

would make dreary and painful reading; I shall rather s

e. Captain Back, in 1833 (Journal, p. 117), said that the sand-flies and mosqu

ements, but did not grasp the idea until I was among them. At Smith Landing, June 7, mosquitoes began to be troublesome, quite as numerous as in the worst part of the New Je

y 9, on Nyarling River, they were mu

e on the garments of his head and neck, a much less number on his arms and legs. The air about was thick with them; at least

ter where they land on him they strike it rich, and at all times a dozen or more bloated bloodsuckers may be seen hanging like red currants on his face and neck. He maintains that they do not bother him, and scoffs

larly supplied; that is, there were 24,000 on the tent and apparently as many more flying about the door. Most of those that bite us are killed but that makes not the slightest perceptible difference in their manners or numbers. They

t must refer to the miserable degenerates they have in New Jersey, for these of the

f a mile from any other island, apparently all rock, and yet it was swarming with mosquitoes. Here, as elsewhere, they were mad for our blood; t

possible, but they proved mild and scarce compared with those

the Buffalo country, there were 15 to 25 on the one side of the hand and elsewhere in proportion. On the Nyarling, in early July, the number was increased, being now 20 to 40. On Great Slave Lake, later that month, there were 50 to 60. But when we reached the Barren Grounds, the land of open breezy plains and cold wat

. This is shown by the facts that if one rushes through thick bushes for a distance, into a clear space, the mosquitoes seem absent at first. One must wait a minute or so to gather up another legion. When landing from a boat on the North

roof tents, we sleep immune. During the day I wear my net and gloves, uncomfortably hot, but a blessed relie

reble, and the Indians are wearing face protectors of some kind. The Major has borrowed Preb

1/2 of these are ruined by the malignancy of the fly plague. Yet it i

ng many able mien are working for. But there is another line of thought that should not be forgotten, though it is neg

the frog, a creature with many resemblances to man-red blood, a smooth, naked, soft skin, etc.-and yet not a mosquito attacked it. Scores had bled my hand before one alighted on the frog, and it leaped off again as though

onds dry and rather shiny. I held up my hand till 50 mosquitoes had alighted on it and begun to bore; of these, 4 alighted on the froggy

d bare till 50 mosquitoes had settled and begun to sting; 7 of these alighted on the fungus

mosquitoes did attack a dead crane; also they swarmed onto a widgeon plucked

s usual, plagued with mosquitoes, but as soon as the party crossed into the Garnish River Valley, a land of woods and swamps like the other, the mosquitoes had disappeared. Dr. Bagg spent the mont

d continue for 2 months, and the great arable region of wheat, that takes in Athabaska and Saskatchewan, where the flies are a nuisance for 6 or 7 weeks, but no more so than they were in Ontario, Michigan, Manitoba, and formerly England; and where the cultivation of the la

e mosquitoes convey no disease-even the f

ope" or "fly repellent,

ence with fly-dope. I had heard that they are not very effectual, and so did not add one to the outfit. I can say n

yal, on

f Tar

of Cam

else vaselin

the latter alone inspire fear in the pests. When a dragon-fly comes buzzing about one's

nation is apparently a small red parasite that became more and more numerous as the season wore on. It appeared in red lumps on the bill and various parts of the stinger's body, and the victim became very sluggish. Specimens sent to Dr. L.

ter boon to mankind to extirpate the mosquito than to stamp out tuberculosis. The latter means death to a considerable proportion of our race, the former means hopeless suffering to all mankind; on