58 BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR. 



Just at this moment when it seemed impossible for us to find 

 any opening, the fog lifted and we saw a schooner's sail over 

 one of the small islets that lay about us. Taking our cue from 

 that we poked into the next narrow channel we came to, and 

 getting some sailing directions from a passing boat, and from 

 the signal man stationed on a bluff to give assistance to stran- 

 gers, we glided into an almost circular basin, hardly large 

 enough for the vessel to swing in, set among steep rising sides, 

 nto which many ring bolts were seen to be fastened, and per- 

 fectly sheltered from every wind. The use for the ring bolts we 

 found later. The fog kept rolling over, and the little fishing 

 vessels kept shooting in, till it seemed the harbor would not 

 hold another. As all sail had to be hauled down before the 

 vessels came in sight of the interior, the vessels seemed literally 

 to scoot into the basin. A few of the vessels were anchored 

 and kept from swinging by lines to the bolts, and the rest of 

 the fleet made fast to them. In all the number of vessels 

 crowded into the space where we hardly thought we could lie 

 was about twenty. How they would ever get out seemed a 

 puzzle, but the next morning it was accomplished, with a light 

 fair wind, by all at once without accident or delay. Had the 

 wind been ahead, the ring bolts would have aided in warping to 

 a weatherly position. 



During the evening the mail steamer caught us, and after 

 putting a little freight ashore, left us behind again. Here were 

 some strange epitaphs painted on the wooden slabs, also people 

 ready to exchange or sell at a far higher rate than we had hith- 

 erto paid, anything they possessed for the cash which was all 

 we had left to bargain with, the available old clothes having 

 been already disposed of. 



It was hard to disabuse the minds of the people at Square 

 Island Harbor of the idea that we had come to seek gold or 

 other valuable mines, the reason being that several years before 

 a party from the States had spent considerable time prospecting 

 in that vicinity and partly opened one or two worthless mica 

 quarries. 



