OF THE POLAR SEA. 189 



the smallest black. Where they are bred cannot easily be deter- 

 mined, for they are numerous in every soil. They make their first 

 appearance in May, and the cold destroys them in September ; in 

 July they are most voracious ; and fortunately for the traders, the 

 journeys from the trading posts to the factories are generally con- 

 cluded at that period. The food of the musquito is blood, which it 

 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 transparent 

 globe. The wound does not swell, like that of the African mus- 

 quito, but it is infinitely more painful ; and when multiplied 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 climate, 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 106° in the sun, and on the 7 th 

 110°. The musquitoes sought the shade in the heat of the day, 

 which we felt no inclination to contend with them. 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 mo- 

 mentary diminution of its speed. But the temporary relief that we 

 had hoped for was only an exchange of tormentors : our new as- 

 sailant, the horse-fly, or bull-dog, ranged in the hottest glare of 

 the sun, and carried off a portion of flesh at each attack. Another 

 noxious insect, the smallest, but not the least formidable, was the 

 sand-fly, known in Canada by the name of the brulot. To such 

 annoyance all travellers must submit, and it would be unworthy to 

 complain of that grievance in the pursuit of knowledge, which is 

 endured for the sake of profit. This detail of it has only been made 

 as an excuse for the scantiness of our observations on the most in- 

 teresting part of the country through which we passed. 



