WRESTLER-EXPLORER

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 184, 2 May 1933, Page 10

WRESTLER-EXPLORER

Visitor’s Experiences MOSQUITOES IN ARCTIC Up till three years ago a mining explorer in the great Arctic wastes of North America, Mr. R. B. Drummond, known in the American wrestling world as “Whiskers Blake.” has a strenuous life behind him Naturally enough, as a professional wrestler he also hopes that the most strenuous period is not yet over. Mr. Drummond arrived in Wellington on the Maunganui yesterday morning in company with three other American heavyweight wrestlers, all under contract for the season in New Zealand. Mr. Drummond was named ’’Whiskers Blake” when he ‘grew a full auburn-coloured beard while out in the wilds. In spite of his career in the wrestling ring, he still wears the beard. His mining exploration for a company in the United States has taken Mr. Drummond to various parts of the globe, from tropical climates to “forty below,” Prior to taking up professional wrestling in 1930, he explored part of the northern territory of Alaska and Canada. Trips were made north in the hottest summer months, followed by a rush out of the Arctic before the freeze-up which followed within a few weeks. Sometimes the ice on the waterways had had to be broken for several miles before the heavy canoes could pass on their way back to civilisation.

In their exploring work near the Arctic Circle, Mr. Drummond and his comrades soon found that the greatest disadvantage was not the cold, but the mosquito. The “barren lands” were thickly covered with them'for a month and a half to two months every summer. During this time of the year the climate was almost temperate, and the mosquitoes were able to keep alive to within ten degrees of the Arctic Circle. After the ground had thawed patches of tundra moss dotted the desolate swamps, which were the only thing to be seen as far as the horizon. Here mosquitoes bred so thickly that sometimes one had only to sweep the air with the hand to collect a dozen of them. Some of the men, having no other amusement, had competed for the biggest catch, and the record stood at a handful of 29 mosquitoes at one sweep. “Talking about records,” Mr. Drummond said, “I once had the honour of holding the ‘wrestling championship of the North-West Territory.’ I defeated the previous champion in a friendly bout —but, of course, there were probably no more than fifty whites in the whole territory.”