Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

PESTS OF THE WOODS^^^mosquitoes would forever render it uninhabitablein summer. The insects come out of their pupaeat the first sprouting of spring vegetation, in May,and remain until destroyed by severe frosts in September.In Alaska, all animals leave for the snowlineas soon as the mosquito pest appears, but theenemy follows them even to the mountam tops aboverimber-line. Deer and moose are killed by mosquitoes,which settle upon them in such amazingswarms that the unfortunate beasts succumb fromliterally having the blood sucked out of their bodies.Bears are driven frantic, are totally blinded, mirein the mud, and starve to death. Animals that survivehave their flesh discolored all through, and eventheir marrow is reduced to the consistency of bloodand water. The men who penetrate such regionsare not the kind that would allow toil or privationto break their spirit, but they become so unstrungfrom days and nights of continuous torment inflictedby enemies insignificant in size but infinite in number,that they become savage, desperate, and sometimeseven weep in sheer helpless anger.In regions so exceptionally cursed with mosquitoesno mere sportsman has any business until wintersets in. But even in the more accessible woodlandsnorth and south of us the insect pest is byfar the most serious hardship that fishermen andother summer outers are obliged to meet. Headnetsand gauntlets are all very well in their way,but one can neither hunt, fish, paddle, push throughthe brush, nor even smoke, when so accoutered.Consequently everybody tries some kind or otherof " fly-dope," by which elegant name we mean anypreparation which, being rubbed over the exposedparts of one's skin, is supposed to discourage insectsfrom repeating their attacks.The num.ber of such dopes is legion. They maybe classified in three groups:( I ) Thick ointments that dry to a tenacious gla^e