104 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



hilltop, countless hordes of mosquitoes viciously 

 attacked us, and as this was our first experience of 

 these pests, we had come out unprovided with 

 mosquito nets. No one, until they have seen mos- 

 quitoes in these northern latitudes, can imagine what 

 their numbers are, nor the misery which they inflict 

 on men and beasts alike, and although I have battled 

 with these pests in torrid zones and tropical climes, 

 yet never have their numbers and ferocity equalled 

 anything which I have encountered amongst these 

 voracious blood-suckers in the Arctic regions of 

 Alaska and Siberia, where during the summer months 

 men and beasts are seldom free from their attacks 

 by day or night. Since the breeze was blowing 

 downwards from the hills I ventured then to light a 

 pipe, and by this means repelled a number of the 

 venomous insects, but for Agnes, who does not smoke 

 " penny poisons," otherwise cigarettes, there was 

 little peace, until at last a gentle rain commenced to 

 fall and drove away our unwelcome visitors to shelter 

 beneath the clustering grasses. 



We scarcely hoped to see a bear before the dim 

 and mystic hours of twilight, but a fact that never 

 entered into our calculations was that here, remote 

 from even the haunts of native men, these beasts had 

 roamed for ages immune from all attacks of their 

 dread enemies the human race. 



And so perchance they had grown callous or far 

 bolder than their species is in the hunted districts of 

 Alaska. Thus it was with no small joy, whilst the 

 light was good, we simultaneously espied a huge 



