THE MOSQUITO PLAGUE 163 



feathers had been put into the latter's nest, and doubtless 

 there would soon be eggs. The dotterels still haunted 

 the hillsides. We shot some near each of the deserted 

 houses — two by one, three by the other. Doubtless the 

 right thing to have done would have been to lie down 

 and watch the birds to their nests and to have taken the 

 eggs. But in the first place a dotterel is very difficult to 

 see through a mosquito-veil, and in the next to lie down 

 and become the nucleus of a vast nebula of mosquitoes is 

 so tormenting to the nerves that we soon chose to adopt 

 the consolatory conclusion that the grapes were sour and 

 not worth the trouble of reaching after ; or, in plain words, 

 that the birds had not begun to breed, and it was no use 

 martyrising ourselves to find their eggs. The mosquitoes 

 were simply a plague. Our hats were covered with 

 them ; they swarmed upon our veils ; they lined with a 

 fringe the branches of the dwarf birches and willows ; 

 they covered the tundra with a mist. I was fortunate in 

 the arrangement of my veil, and by dint of indiarubber 

 boots and cavalry gauntlets I escaped many wounds ; but 

 my companion was not so lucky. His net was perpetu- 

 ally transformed into a little mosquito-cage ; his leggings 

 and knickerbockers were by no means mosquito-proof ; 

 he had twisted a handkerchief round each hand, but this 

 proved utterly insufficient ; had it not grown cooler on 

 the hills, as the sun got low, he would certainly have 

 fallen into a regular mosquito fever. We were told that 

 this pest of mosquitoes was nothing as yet to what it 

 would become later. " Wait a while," said our Job's 

 comforter, " and you will not be able to see each other 

 at twenty paces distance ; you will not be able to aim 

 with your gun, for the moment you raise your barrel half 

 a dozen regiments of mosquitoes will rise between you 

 and the sight.'' When the coolness of evening set in we 



