OF THE POLAR SEA. 117 



can extract by penetrating the hide of a 

 buffalo ; and if it is not disturbed, it gorges 

 itself so as to swell its body into a trans- 

 parent globe. The wound does not swell, 

 like that of the African musquito, but it is 

 infinitely more painful; and when multi- 

 plied an hundred-fold, and continued for so 

 many successive days, it becomes an evil of 

 such magnitude, that cold, famine, and every 

 other concomitant of an inhospitable cli- 

 mate, must yield the pre-eminence to it. 

 It chases the buffalo to the plains, irritating 

 him to madness ; and the rein-deer to the 

 sea-shore, from which they do not return 

 till the scourge has ceased. 



On the 6th the thermometer was 1 06° in 

 | the sun, and on the 7th 110°. The mus- 

 quitoes sought the shade in the heat of the 

 day. It was some satisfaction to us to see 

 the havoc made among them by a large and 

 beautiful species of dragon-fly, called the 

 musquito hawk, which wheeled through 

 their retreats, swallowing its prey without a 

 tjmomentary diminution of its speed. But 

 jthe temporary relief that we had hoped for 



