ISO ANECDOTE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 



waving a branch in each hand ; but even with 

 this, and the aid of a veil and stout leather 

 gloves, I did not escape without severe punish- 

 ment. For the time, I thought the tiny plagues 

 worse even than mosquitos. 



While speaking on this subject I am reminded 

 of a remark of Maufelly, which as indicative of 

 the keen observation of the tribe, and illustrating 

 the humanity of the excellent individual to whom 

 it alludes, I may be pardoned for introducing 

 here. — It was the custom of Sir John Franklin 

 never to kill a fly ; and, though teased by them 

 beyond expression, especially when engaged in 

 taking observations, he would quietly desist from 

 his work, and patiently blow the half-gorged 

 intruders from his hands — " the world was 

 wide enough for both." This was jocosely re- 

 marked upon at the time by Akaitcho and the 

 four or five Indians who accompanied him ; but 

 the impression, it seems, had sunk deep, for on 

 Maufelly's seeing me fill my tent with smoke, 

 and then throw open the front and beat the sides 

 all round with leafy branches, to drive out the 

 stupefied pests before I went to rest, he could 

 not refrain from expressing his surprise that I 

 should be so unlike the old chief, who would 

 not destroy so much as a single mosquito. 



As we got to the confluence of the Ah-hel- 

 dessy with Great Slave Lake, I was glad to per- 



