CHAP, xxxii. THE ATLANTIC COAST OF LABKADOE. 185 



scene. But we no sooner entered Cartwright's Harbour than 

 the face of nature was so greatly and suddenly changed, as if 

 we had shot within the tropics. There we saw neither ice nor 

 snow ; the hills were of a moderate height, completely covered 

 with spruces, larches, firs, and birch, the different hues of which 

 caused a pleasing variety to the eye ; and the shore was bordered 

 round with grass. The water, too, instead of pans of ice, was 

 mottled over with ducks and drakes* cooing amorously, which 

 brought to my remembrance the pleasing melody of the stock- 

 dove. That nothing might be wanting to complete the contrast, 

 there was not a cloud in the sky; the sun had no sooner 

 attained a sufficient height than he darted his rays upon us 

 most vehemently, which were reflected back by the glossy surface 

 of the water with intolerable heat, while Zephyrus played upon 

 us with a tropical warmth. 



The scene was greatly altered on our return, for the jam ice 

 was not to be seen, the barricades were fallen off from the shore, 

 most of the snow melted, all the harbours were open, and we 

 had much pleasanter prospects, since we ran within several of 

 the largest islands, and of course saw their best sides. 



The Atlantic swell on this part of the Labrador coast 

 is well described by Admii^al Bayfield. 



I certainly never, in any part of the world, saw a heavier sea 

 than that which at times rolls in from the eastward into St. 

 Lewis Sound, even as far up as the entrance of the inlet, round 

 the Eiver Islands, and up the bays of the main to the westward 

 of them. I never saw anything more grand and wildly beautiful 

 than the tremendous swell, which often comes in without wind, 

 rolling slowly but irresistibly in from the sea as if moved by 

 some unseen power ; rearing itself up. like a wall of water, as it 

 approaches the craggy sides of the islands, moving on faster and 

 faster as it nears the shore, until at last it bursts with fury over 

 islets thirty feet high, or sends up sheets of foam and spray 

 sparkling in the sunbeams fifty feet up the sides of precipices. 



* Eider ducks make a cooing at this time of the year, not unlike the lii'st 

 note of the stock-dove. 



