he wrist, also the back of the head, for the
thickest hair is of no protection. Although the naturalist knows that it
is only the female mosquitoes which suck blood, and that their activity
in this respect is connected with reproduction and is probably necessary
to the ripening of the fertilised eggs, yet even he is finally overcome
by the torture caused by these demons, though he be the most equable
philosopher under the sun. It is not the pain caused by the sting, or
still more by the resulting swelling; it is the continual annoyance, the
everlastingly recurring discomfort under which one suffers. One can
endure the pain of the sting without complaint at first, but sooner or
later every man is bound to confess himself conquered, and all
resistance is gradually paralysed by the innumerable omnipresent armies
always ready for combat."

Although the climate of Dawson is naturally severe a man may live with
proper precautions through a dozen winters comfortably enough in
Alaska. Many people are under the impression that the winters here are
of Cimmerian darkness, with no daylight for weeks at a time, whereas,
even on the shortest day of December, there are still two hours of
sunlight. 75 deg. F. below zero is about the coldest yet experienced,
but this is very rare, and here, unlike Canada, there is seldom the wind
which makes even 20 deg. below almost unbearable. Winter generally
commences in October, but often much earlier, and the Yukon is generally
clear of ice by the beginning of June. The snowfall is not excessive,
three feet being considered deep. In summer the temperature often
exceeds 90 deg. F. but the nights are always cool and pleasant.

The Klondike district had, up to the time of the great gold strike,
borne the reputation of being an arid ice-bound waste, incapable of
producing anything more nutritious than trees, coarse grass, and the
berries peculiar to sub-Arctic regions. On the occasion of my first
stroll down First Avenue I was scarcely surprised to find all kinds of
fruit and vegetables exposed for sale, the transit now being so rapidly
accomplished (in summer) from California. But ocular proof was needed to
convince me that potatoes, radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, indeed almost
every known vegetable, is now grown around Dawson and on the opposite
side of the river. Strawberries and nectarines (Klondike-grown) were
served at the restaurants, of course at stupendous prices, as hundreds
of acres of glas