Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

R.C.M.P. detachment at Old Crow. This house was, for
several years, reported to be the finest house north of
the Ar-ctic Circle in North America. The supply boat from
Dawson did not arrive until July land throughout June the
men ate "mousey" rice, found in the house, wild garlic,
Allium sp., and fish.
The party at Bathurst Inlet captured many species of
insects indigenous to the Boreal forest. This suggests that,
during a good part of the summer of 1951, the prevailing
meteorological conditions were such that these insects were
carried a few hundred miles north of their normal habitat.
Johnny Bourassa, the well-known bush pilot, flew the party
in and it was on his return flight from Bathurst Inlet that
he was forced down and lost.
The Spence Bay investigations supp1emented the insect
collections made by Commander J.O. Ross during the Ross
expedition of 1829-33 in the Boothia Peninsu1a region.
Similarly, the party at Alert, in northern Ellesmere Island,
supplemented the insects collected during the Nares expedition
of 1875-6.
The entomological work at Hay River and Ste Anthony
provided information that will be of value in our studies of
the distribution of biting flies and other insects of northern
North America.
The descriptions of insects collected by the early
exp10rers are often inadequate for specifie recognitioni
moreover, in many instances the specimens are lost, are
badly damaged, or are in museums not easily available for
study. It is therefore necessary to revisit those areas to
obtain and recognize the specijs that were described. This
avoids confusion in the application of names to those species.
Our investigations have shown that many arctic insects require
several years to complete their development from the agg to
the adult stage. Sorne species do not appear in the adult
stage every season, and to obtain a representative collection
of every species from one arctic locality, it is often necessary
to continue the investigations for two or three successive
years.
A total of 38 arctic and subarctic localities have now
been investigated in the course of the Northern Insect Survey.