144 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



with an occasional face-bite inside the net, for, from time to 

 time, one or more would contrive to get through it, filling me 

 with apprehensions lest this should become more frequent. 

 Night — for there is night here, though its gloom can be seen 

 — brought some cessation of hostilities, and I was able to sleep, 

 with the net on and with an oilskin coat over my face. Other- 

 wise I should have got no sleep at all, as I never could take off 

 the net, except once, for about three minutes. But oh ! the 

 length of the next day ! Fine every hour — there is a fine spell 

 on now — but " fair is foul " with Mosquitoes.* To go out was 

 impossible without going into more of them and letting more 

 of them in. I got some relief by tying one of my plaids across 

 the tent, from window to window, ahd pulling it, in a pent- 

 house, over my head, letting it fall behind me, so that, to go 

 down it, they would be leaving light for darkness, which 

 Mosquitoes (creatures opposite to humanity) don't do. A light- 

 proof tent, therefore, ought to make one immune from them. 

 The sun — it was not only fine, but broiling — streamed all 

 through mine, its violent green being possibly an added attraction 

 to the hosts. To sit or lie like this, in thick clothes, under a 

 plaid that I could only just peep out of, and in which I had to 

 keep my hands muffled — and, even with all this, some got down 

 my tall Swedish boots, and so at my legs — was only a few degrees 

 short of suffocation, but, not being quite that, was better than 

 Mosquitoes. 



The lessened activity during the next night was a little more 

 marked, I thought, and it was then that I took off my net for 

 that short space, as mentioned, which enabled me to eat a 

 mouthful or two of cold pancake! and drink a little water, but 

 at 8 o'clock next morning signs of a state of things yet more 

 abominable than the day before began to penetrate even through 

 the piles that I slept under, and, sitting up, I found myself in 



* This is quite true. They cannot do so much on a cold rainy day, which 

 I used consequently to long for. Fine ones, on the contrary, I would have 

 abolished altogether for the time being, had I possessed such a power. 

 However, from the close of the episode in question, I might just as well 

 have had it. 



■j- Pancakes are a staple dish in Iceland, but with that unfortunate quali- 

 fication. When I mentioned that we ate them hot in England, this roused 

 curiosity only, not enthusiasm ! 



