48 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



On the seventh there is this note : 



Drawing all day ; finished the female Grouse and five young, 

 and prepared the male bird. The captain, John, and Lincoln, 

 went off this afternoon with a view to camp on a bay about 

 ten miles distant. Soon after, we had a change of weather, 

 and, for a wonder, bright lightning and something like summer 

 clouds. When fatigued with drawing I went on shore for exer- 

 cise, and saw many pretty flowers, amongst them a flowering 

 Sea-pea, quite rich in color. . . . The mosquitoes quite as 

 numerous as in Louisiana. 



On July 14 the Ripley took the party forty-three 

 miles farther east to Little Maccatina, or Hare Harbor, 

 as it is called today, where they remained until July 21, 

 proceeding thence to Baie de Portage. Here they were 

 able to enter their small boats, and visited the captain 

 of a whaling schooner from New Brunswick, a Canadian 

 trapper, and a Scotchman, Samuel Robertson by name, 

 who was engaged in the sealing industry at Sparr Point, 

 all of whom Audubon pumped for information on the 

 country and its products. On July 25, they started for 

 "Chevalier's Settlement," but were caught in a storm, 

 and came to in Bras d'Or (Bradore) Bay; there they 

 found the Labrador Duck, which in 1875, but forty- two 

 years later, had become totally extinct. 



At the approach of August the brief Labrador sum- 

 mer, of barely one month, was drawing to a close, and 

 Audubon was exerting his utmost efforts to accomplish 

 his purposes. Under date of August 10 he wrote: 20 



My reason for not writing at night is that I have been 

 drawing so constantly, often seventeen hours a day, that the 

 weariness of my body at night has been unprecedented, by 

 such work at least. At times I felt as if my physical powers 



20 Ibid., p. 425. 



