136 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



the extraordinary abundance of mosquitoes. There is, so to speak, over the 

 entire Arctic region, one enormous brood, which reaches maturity within a very 

 short time. The eggs, which have lain dormant from the previous summer, 

 hatch in the pools formed everywhere by the melting snows, and the larvae de- 

 velop rapidly under the constant influence of the midnight sun. The abundance 

 of these northern mosquitoes, then, is not due to accumulations of the product 

 of a number of generations, but rests mainly upon the unlimited breeding 

 facilities furnished by the great number of pools of snow-water, for it is the 

 opportunities for larval development that largely determine the abundance of 

 mosquitoes. 



Linnseus in the " Flora Lapponica " dwells at some length upon the great 

 abundance of mosquitoes in Lapland and the torments they inflict upon man and 

 beast. He states that he believes that nowhere else on earth are they found in 

 such abundance and he compares their numbers to the dust of the earth. Even 

 in the open you can not draw your breath without having your mouth and 

 nostrils filled with them ; and ointments of tar and cream or of fish grease are 

 scarcely sufficient to protect even the case-hardened cuticle of the Laplander 

 from their bite. Even in their cabins the natives can not take a mouthful of 

 food or lie down to sleep unless they be fumigated almost to suffocation. The 

 Lapps of the desert keep their houses filled with a dense smoke by the burning of 

 fungi. The reindeer come to the houses of their own accord twice a day and the 

 herdsman fumigates them thoroughly by approaching the herd from the wind- 

 ward side with the smudge of fungi. The animals show the relief they ex- 

 perience from this treatment by chewing their cud and almost falling asleep. 



The abundance of mosquitoes in the arctics is mentioned in the narrative of 

 nearly all arctic expeditions. 



Sir John Ross in the appendix to the " Narrative " of his second voyage 

 states: " Of this genus [/'' Culex " = Aedes] only one species was observed. It 

 first appeared about the 10th of July, on the 15th it became very numerous, and 

 on the 22d so extremely troublesome, as to prevent the necessary duties of the 

 ship. They were in perfect clouds over the marshes, and their larvae constitute 

 the principal food of the trout that inhabit the lakes. It was only in the beau- 

 tiful summer of 1830 that we found them so very numerous. On the 13th of 

 August of that year they came out again after the rain, but were no longer very 

 troublesome, being apparently nipped by the frost at night; indeed soon after 

 this time the ground was again covered with snow, and all entomological ob- 

 servations were terminated." 



The expedition of the " Alert " and " Discovery " found mosquitoes extremely 

 troublesome when off the lower portions of the coast of Greenland ; in the ex- 

 treme north they still found them common but not troublesome. 



Lundbeck found that mosquitoes occur in enormous numbers on the west 

 coast of Greenland. He states that their bites are very troublesome and cause 

 swellings, particularly when one is attacked for the first time. " Larvae and 

 pupae are common in all water holes all through the summer and the mosquito 

 itself is found from mid- June into August. The plague of mosquitoes reaches 



