ARCTIC MOSQUITOES 137 



its culmination in the district of Kristianshaab ; at Upernivik, on the other 

 hand, it is considerably lessened." 



Among modern writers Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton gives an interesting 

 account of his experiences with northern mosquitoes on a journey to the Great 

 Slave Lake region of Canada. This will be found in Scribner's Magazine for 

 November, 1910, under the title: ''The Arctic Prairies; i. The Land of the 

 Buffalo; 6. Mosquitoes (pp. 532-536). It quite substantiates the accounts of 

 the earlier travellers. 



A. S. Packard, in his book entitled "The Labrador Coast" (jSTew York, 

 1891), on page 86, refers to mosquitoes on Caribou Island. He writes concern- 

 ing an alder swamp : 



" Here mosquitoes and black-flies swarm ; we are under shelter of a cliff, and 

 there is no wind to keep off these horrible pests. How they rage and torment, 

 these myriad entomological furies ! Now for a frantic rush out of this purga- 

 tory, and a tiresome climb of a hundred feet up this cliff ! " 



Again, on page 191, referring to Strawberry Harbor — which, by the way, he 

 thinks must have been called " Strawberry " because it is but little larger than 

 that berry — he writes : 



" Deep and seemingly inaccessible to outside life as Strawberry Harbor prom- 

 ised to be, the next day, which was nearly calm and sunny, with a little breeze 

 from the east, the mosquitoes, swarming from land and peering over into our 

 den, swooped down u|X)n us and made life miserable. Ashore with my insect- 

 net, they fairly drove me off the hunting ground, which proved to be richer in 

 arctic insect life than any yet experienced." 



The explorer, Charles F. Hall, gives many instances of mosquito abundance 

 during his extensive visits to Arctic America. The citations given here are from 

 the narrative of his second expedition, published in Washington in 1879. On 

 page 75 the statement is made that he went into winter quarters north of Depot 

 Island and had his beard cut, " Its length had been a special protection in the 

 summer months against those tremendous blood-suckers called in the English 

 tongue mosquitoes, which abound in swarms here." Again, on page 322, the 

 statement is made that at Ships Harbor mosquitoes made their appearance as 

 early as the 4th of July. Again, on page 426, an account is given of a walk on 

 one of Hall's trips to Talloon, as follows : 



" The sun was about 5 degrees high. Not a breath of air stirring, the sun 

 shining hot, and the mosquitoes desperately intent on getting all the blood of 

 the only white man of the country. I kept up a constant battling with my seal- 

 skin mittens directly before my face, now and then letting them slap first on one 

 and then on the other of my hands, which operations crushed many a foe. It 

 seemed to me at times as if I never would get back. Minutes were like hours, 

 and the distance of about two miles seemed more like half a score. At length I 

 got back to my home, both temperature and temper high. I made quick work in 

 throwing open the canvas roof of our stores, and, getting to our medicine-chest, 

 snatched a half-pint bottle of mosquito proof oil, and with a little of this be- 

 smeared every exposable part of my person. How glorious and sudden was the 

 change. A thousand devils, each armed with lancet and blood-pump, coura- 

 geously battling my very face, departed at once in supreme disgust at the con- 

 founded stink the coal-oil had diffused about me." 



