Chap. XII. BACK'S JOUENEY TO THE POLAR SEA. 467 



force their way through woods of stunted swamp- 

 fir, clambering over the fallen trees through rivulets 

 and across swamps, getting on as well as the 

 burthens they were obliged to carry would permit ; 

 and when they emerged all was barren and desolate. 

 On gaining, however, the summit of the pass which 

 divides the waters, and is of great height, such was 

 the beauty of the varied outline on the northern 

 side, " that we were captivated into a momentary 

 forgetfulness of our fatigue." But fatigue alone 

 was not the main cause of their suffering : — 



" The laborious duty which had been thus satisfactorily 

 performed was rendered doubly severe by the combined 

 attack of myriads of sand-flies and mosquitoes, which made 

 our faces stream with blood. There is certainly no form of 

 wretchedness, among those to which the chequered life of a 

 voyageur is exposed, at once so great and so humiliating, as 

 the torture inflicted by these puny blood-suckers. To avoid 

 them is impossible : and as for defending himself, though 

 for a time he may go on crushing them by thousands, he 

 cannot long maintain the unequal conflict ; so that at last, 

 subdued by pain and fatigue, he throws himself in despair 

 with his face to the earth, and, half suffocated in his blanket, 

 groans away a few hours in sleepless rest." — p. 117. 



Again he says, — 



" After a hard day's work, my weary crew were happy 

 to encamp, notwithstanding the vigorous and unintermitting 

 assaults of our faithful tormentors, the sand-flies and mos- 

 quitoes. Certainly they were pests, and sharply did they 

 convey to us the moral lesson of man's helplessness ; since, 

 with all our boasted strength and skill, we were unable to 

 repel these feeble atoms of the creation." — p. 134. 



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