| Summary: | (53) In considering the ordinary difficulties of a prospecting tour in Alaska, we must not fail to include the mosquito pest. Myriads of these pesky insects spend the summer in Alaska; they emerge from the bark of firewood in the winter, and come skating down the glaciers in the early spring. The Yukon variety has no conscience, nothing but an appetite—a thirst for gore. Snow and frost do not destroy them, and they utilize the dense fogs as an ambush from whence to pounce upon the unwary prospector. It is almost impossible to move about the trails or to undertake &ny kind of labor during the summer unless thoroughly protected by some sort of a mosquito bar. As there is no night On the Yukon during the summer season, the mosquito evidently feels that it is not proper for the Klondiker to sleep while the sun shines, and does everything In its power to encourage wakefulness. Although the active members of this host of tormentors are usually small, their bite would do credit to a much larger beast. John P. Clum, U. S. P. O. Inspector and Lecturer. Copyright, 1900, by B. L. Singley.
|
|---|