MUSQUITOES. 51 



great delight of the voyageurs, who had been 

 so tormented by the mosquitoes that they 

 longed to get to the cool breezes of Lake Win- 

 nipeg, and indulge in the luxury of an undis- 

 turbed nap. My companion Mr. King, among 

 others, was severely punished, to his no little 

 disappointment, — as, being indifferent to the 

 attacks of English insects of every description, 

 he had fondly imagined he should be invulner- 

 able to those of America. But a dipping in the 

 Styx itself would not have saved him from the 

 darts of the indefatigable searchers after blood 

 to which he was now exposed ; and he rose in 

 the morning with features so changed that it was 

 difficult to recognise the friend of the preceding 

 night. 



At 4 a. m. of the 1 1 th of June, we left the esta- 

 blishment; but the wind blew so hard, that we 

 had not proceeded more than three miles before 

 the height of the waves, which broke freely over 

 both sides of the canoes, obliged us to encamp. 

 But few birds of any kind were seen ; and though 

 I remembered that on a former occasion the wild 

 pigeons were very numerous, yet none were now 

 found near the fort, though the cleared land 

 around the Red River colony, not more than a 

 day's march off, was said to swarm with them. 

 On the 12th and following day we made con- 

 siderable progress. The weather afterwards 



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