50 Deane, Audubon's Labrador Trip of 1833. [jan 



we found Captain Bayfield, R. N., Doctor Wm. Kelly ' and others, 

 not only polite but truly kind to us. 



I will not now attemjjt to say a word about the country we are 

 in, it is so unlike anything that I liave ever seen before and so far 

 beyond my means to describe, that to let it alone may (for the present 

 at least) prove the most prudent. We are, thanks to God, all 

 well! and have all been so since we left the United States. Our 

 vessel proves a fine sailor and a staunch one. Our Ca})tain a first 

 rate man, active, industrious and pleasing in his inanners. Our 

 young gentlemen agree delightfully together and thus far I am 

 pleased with the charge I have of them. 



The information which I have received connected with the pub- 

 lication of my work will prove, I believe, unprecidented and al- 

 though I have procured only 2 new species, one a Fringilla " and 

 the other a Parus,^ and made but 17 drawings, I feel well satisfied. 

 We have however been deceived as to the cpuxntity of birds repre- 

 sented to be found with here. Birds are rarer than even on the 



person indeed. On returning Mr. Audubon's visit, was delighted with liis drawings, 

 the birds being represented of hfe size and most beautifully painted." 



Under the same date the Bayfield journals give the following account of the 

 "Eggers" on the coast of the Canadian Labrador. In his 'Ornithological Biography' 

 (Vol. Ill, p. 82) Audubon gives a most graphic account of the traffic in the eggs 

 of Labrador sea-birds, but Bayfield has added some facts of interest. 



"June 24, 183.3. — Mr. Audubon dined on board the ' Gulnare'. . . . We heard 

 from the Americans [he alludes to the American fishermen] about the ' Eggers,' a sort 

 of people, we, today, first heard spoken of as a body. We had, previously, no idea 

 of the extent of the 'egging business,' as our informant termed it. It appears that 

 in some seasons twenty small schooners, or shallops, of 20 to 30 tons, load with eggs 

 from this coast (the locality was principally the Meccatina Islands). Halifax is the 

 principle market for them, where they, at times, fetch a much higher price than hens 

 eggs. 



"They are stowed in the hold in bulk, and kept for several weeks without any 

 preparation. These men, the 'Eggers,' combine together, and form a strong com- 

 pany. They suffer no one to interfere with their business driving away the fishermen, 

 or any one else who attempts to collect eggs, near where they happen to be. ' Might 

 makes right,' with them, it is clear; they have arms, and are said by the fishermen not 

 to be very scrupulous about using them. 



"As soon as one vessel is loaded, they send lier to market, others follow in suc- 

 cession, so that the market is always supplied, but never glutted. One vessel of 

 25 tons is said to have cleared 200£ by this egging business, in a favorable season." 



Bayfield's vessel, the 'Gulnare,' was a two-masted schooner, square rigged on the 

 fore-mast, with no steam power. 



1 "A man of talents, a student of botany and conchology." (The Journals.) 



2 Melospiza lincolni. Orn. Biogr., Vol. II, 1834. 



3 Parus hiidsonicus. This was not a new species. Audubon found a nest and 

 four young, able to fly, July 18, 1833. 



