TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 207

But in the spring the northerner is pursued by a relentless enemy in
the shape of ophthalmia’. To guard himself against the dread complaint, the
northernmost Dénés have adopted the snow goggles of their neighbours, the
Eskimos.

That this winter convenience originated in the centre of Asia there seems
to be little doubt. Bonvalot figures a petty chief in the western borders of
Tibet wearing snow goggles®, and Prof. O. T. Mason says that from that
point the apparatus may be traced eastwards, until we get to the tundras of
northeastern Siberia, over which the drivers of dog sledges wear strips of
tin perforated with small holes, or having long, narrow slits, while others are
of wood and shaped so as to fit the upper part of the face, through which
are also cut narrow slits, one for each eye’.

Since we have mentioned the traveller's enemies, we cannot afford to
ignore that which renders his life so miserable during the summer. The
attentions with which it overwhelms his whole person, especially those parts
which are unprotected by clothing, well deserve the compliment of the following
quotation from Sir John Franklin’s Journal.

“The musquitoes of America resemble, in shape, those of Africa and
Europe, but differ essentially in size and other particulars. There are two
distinct species, the largest of which is brown, and the smallest black. Where
they are bred cannot easily be determined, 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 concluded
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 musquito, 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 con-
comitant 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’.

The accoutrement of even the fleetest tripper must comprise at least an
axe, Or large bowie knife, to cut the evergreen boughs for his bedding, a
drinking cup, which is carried at the belt, a blanket, a kettle and the necessary
provisions.

' Petitot writes in this connection: “J’ai vu des sauvages se rouler a terre, dans le
paroxisme de la souffrance, les yeux engloutis, sanglants, incapables de supporter la vue du feu
ni la lumiére du jour, littéralement aveugles” (Autour du Gd. L. des Esclaves, p. 184).

* “Across Tibet”, p. 233. New York, 1892.

* Cf. “Primitive Travel and Transportation”, p. 283. Washington, 1896.

“ «Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea”, vol. II, pp. 116—17.