84 



LABRADOR 



northwest winds to prevent a speedy progress "down" the 

 coast. Ashore, at any point from Belle Isle to Hebron, 

 the "enemy" assumes a new face much more repellent. 

 Many a time has every naturalist ashore on the coast 

 during July or August been driven from his work or through 

 it by Labrador's greatest plague the almost incredible 

 mosquito and black fly. In countless swarms of countless 

 individuals they attack hands, face, and neck necessarily 

 unprotected in the collection of specimens or in the manipu- 

 lation of instruments. It is written that the grasshopper 

 may be a burden, but he is a small angel of light compared 

 to the Labrador "fly." 



In Newfoundland the mosquito and gnat have had an 

 apologist who, in all fairness, should be heard. Thus writes 

 Whitbourne, the optimist: "Those Flies seeme to haue a 

 great power and authority upon all loytering people that 

 come to the New-found-land : for they have this property, 

 that when they finde any such lying lazily, or sleeping in the 

 Woods, they will presently bee more nimble to seize on 

 them, than any Sargeant will bee to arrest a man for debt. 

 Neither will they leaue stinging or sucking out the blood 

 of such sluggards, untill, like a Beadle, they bring him to 

 his Master, where hee should labour: in which time of 

 Loytering, those Flies will so brand such idle persons in 

 their faces, that they may be known from others, as the 

 Turkes doe their slaves." 



But to the explorer, especially to the geologist, there is 

 another side to the matter an occasion for keen pleasure 

 in spite of every disability in the way of advance or in 

 comfort. Once beyond the fog-curtain so often let down 

 over the Strait of Belle Isle, he can enjoy a climate made for 



