OCEAN WANDERERS 



Sable, Nova Scotia. Though more difficult of 

 access, there is no harbour-bar to cross. Perhaps the 

 Shearwaters keep off-shore, for I have not found as 

 many of them there as at Chatham ; but it is a fine 

 place for the Jaegers. The fishing-boats there are 

 mostly poor, frail craft, such as no Chatham fisher- 

 man would tolerate, yet their owners venture in 

 them well off the land. During September and 

 October the Jaegers become specially abundant, 

 congregating in localities on the ocean where the 

 bait-fish are plenty. Late one September I made a 

 vigorous effort to see these birds at their best, and sailed 

 out early one morning, with two fishermen, to the 

 cod-grounds. Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers were 

 fairly common, but the wind soon breezed up so that, 

 in the crank little boat, the fishermen were afraid 

 for their lives, and put back to land. It was a fine 

 sight to see the powerful birds, exulting in their 

 strength, patrol the tossing ocean and exact from 

 it tribute. 



The next day was cloudy, with a good breeze, 

 the last of my stay. I hired a larger and better 

 boat, and put to sea after the Jaegers. We saw a 

 few flying to the southward, but, though we sailed 

 well out to sea, and up and down the coast, we 

 failed to reach their real haunts. When farthest to 

 the southward, we noticed the masts of a fishing-fleet 

 in the distance. And when at night this fleet made 

 port for shelter from the approaching storm, and 

 one of the men told me what he hsd seen that day, 

 I felt angry with myself for my obtuseness. The 

 fleet of schooners were bunched together on a shoal 

 twelve miles southeast of Cape Sable, catching and 



119 



