ALASKA. 29 



constant wear, have a repellant power which even the mosquitoes, bloodthirsty 

 and cruel as they are, are hardly equal to meet. When traveling, the natives 

 are, however, glad enough to seize upon any piece of mosquito net, no matter 

 how small, and usually they have to wrap cloths or skins about their heads and 

 wear mittens in midsummer. The traveler who exposes his bare eyes or face 

 here loses his natural appearance ; his eyelids swell up and close, and his face 

 becomes one mass of lumps and fiery pimples. Mosquitoes torture the Indian 

 dogs to df^ath, especially if one of these animals, by mange or otherwise, loses 

 an inconsiderable portion of its thick hairy covering, and even drive the bear 

 and the deer into the water. 



