652 Newfoundland Adventures. \ 



Grampus that still fluttered grimly in the old mainsail, with store of 

 powder and shot, and an excellent detonating double-barrelled fowling- 

 piece that I had brought from Jersey. Simon took it up as he came on 

 board, in the way that a trumpeter of the heavy dragoons might vouch- 

 safe to handle a child's penny whistle condescendingly laid it along- 

 side his old duck gun and shook his head most hopelessly as he dis- 

 covered by actual admeasurement that both my barrels taken together 

 would only equal the length of his ! I was rather piqued at the old 

 fellow's inference, and entered into a statement of some late experiments 

 in England on the various ranges of barrels, and their disproportionate 

 ranges. Simon shook his head still more incredulously at the new- 

 fangled notions of the old-world sportsmen ; and at last clearly con- 

 vinced me that he was too old to admit a new idea, and that in his case 

 I must be contented with the exhibition of the very opposite state of 

 the human intellect that which gratifies itself with pouring out all the 

 notions it had acquired previous to the age of forty. 



He and Sebastian formed my only companions. The old man ex- 

 plained the cause in a whisper, as the boy shook out the jib, and made 

 ready for sea. " When I was a young fellow, I always found that my 

 playfellows led me into danger that I wouldn't have faced without com- 

 pany ; so I persuade Sebastian that 'tis more courageous and profitable 

 to go alone : for he and I are all one. Ah !" continued he with a sigh, 

 " Cabot's qualities are only granted to him in part as yet. He has got 

 all his courage without his caution. He'd fight a shark in the water 

 with a diver's toothpick* if I'd let him, out of downright carelessness 

 of life. So I go to keep watch on him, now that Cabot's gone." 



We had a fine easterly breeze that morning, before which we scudded 

 along at a delightful rate. We soon doubled Cape St. John, where the 

 French coast commences. Headland after headland was passed in quick 

 succession ; and thinly scattered fishing-huts peeped out here and there, 

 from creeks and coves, like out-posts of civilization thrown on land to 

 secure the wealth of ocean. The tall scaffolds some forty feet high 

 stood in picturesque array beside the cottages in many places, rising 

 like watch-towers high above the perpendicular rocks on which they 

 were erected, when the scanty strand below did not allow the careful 

 planters room to dry their fish in safety there. The day passed away 

 before my eyes were tired of the wild scenery presented to them along 

 this coast, which was quite new to me, and appeared strangely savage 

 after having feasted my sight for the last five years on the luxuriant 

 shores, and splendid castles, towns, and villas of the English Channel. 

 The sun set, and still the steady gale swelled the sails, and displayed the 

 picturesque Grampus in the moonlight as the orb rose trembling over 

 the waves. The weather was so fine, and the wind so favourable, that 

 we agreed to stand out well from shore, and take rest alternately as 

 well as we could. The old man was prevailed on to " turn in" to his 

 boat-cloak and take the first nap, while Sebastian and I kept watch : he 

 soon snored soundly. 



" Is there any hope alive," said I to the lad, " of still civilizing these 

 wild natives?" 



* A short stick, sharp at both ends the weapon by which the pearl-fishers in California 

 baffle their powerful enemy in his own element. As the shark opens his mouth to bite, 

 the diver thrusts the stick in perpendicularly, holding it by the middle : the jaws close on 

 the points, and the man withdraws his hand in safety and triumph. 



