We were not a little rejoiced when this perilous adventure terminated, for we had felt all the while like a couple of outlaws, in momentary fear of surprise. I have long ago related my sufferings from gnats in the course of my Lapland expedition. In this place I was still more incommoded by some very small flies, about a line in length and very narrow. Their breast was of a blueish grey. Front of the head whitish, with black eyes. Wings pellucid. Body greyish, oblong and narrow. A white scale was placed on each side at the insertion of the wings. The legs were black, with a white joint in the middle of each, the base being speckled. The hind part of the shoulders was whitish. _Antennæ_ simple, minute, parallel, and pointing right forward. The wings lay one over the other so as to resemble a single one, notched at the extremity, when the insect was at rest. Each of us was beset by a whole legion of these flies towards sun-set. What rendered them peculiarly troublesome was their manner of running over the face, and flying into the nose, mouth and eyes. When they were approaching in order to inflict their bite, they were not to be driven away by our blowing ever so hard. The Laplanders call these insects _Mockere_, alluding to the smallness of their head; the Swedes _Knott_. (_Culex reptans._ Linnæus mentions in the _Fauna Suecica_ the extremely tiresome noise made by these gnats in their approach.) They covered our linen so as to render it quite black. It was to no purpose to attempt to drive them away. (See _v._ 1. 208.)