134 TORMENTED BY SAND-FLIES AND MOSQU1TOS. 



intimation, however, was not without its use ; it 

 prepared me to expect other obstacles, and oc- 

 casioned the methodising of various plans, by 

 which the execution of that part of the service 

 was at last successfully completed. 



Having paddled along the edge of the stream 

 of ice, we made for a remarkable mountainous bluff 

 to the north-east, between which and some other 

 high land was a passage leading north. But the 

 sun had set; and, after a hard day's work, my 

 weary crew were happy to encamp, notwithstand- 

 ing the vigorous and unintermitting assaults 

 of our faithful tormentors, the sand-flies and 

 mosquitos. 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. 



August 26th. — The temperature had fallen 

 to 31°, and coated the lake, for a few hundred 

 yards from the shore, with a thin sheet of ice; 

 while the calm surface of the open water was 

 literally black with dead flies. Slight as the 

 impediment was, it required the utmost caution 

 on the part of the bowman to open a lane, by 

 breaking the ice on each side, so as to allow the 

 canoe to pass without touching; for the bark be- 

 ing rendered brittle by the overnight's frost, the 

 least concussion would have produced serious con- 



