BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR. 



ON BOARD THE "JULIA A. DECKER," ) 

 OFF ST. JOHN'S BAY, NEWFOUNDLAND, j 



We are bowling along with a fine southwest wind, winged out, 

 mainsail reefed and foresail two-reefed, and shall be in the straits in 

 about two hours. The Julia is a flyer. Between 1 2 and 4 this 

 morning we logged just 46 knots, namely, 13.5 miles per hour for 

 four hours. I doubt if I ever went much faster in a sailing vessel. 

 It is now about 10 o'clock, and we have made over 75 miles since 4. 



All hands are on watch for a first glimpse of the Labrador coast, 

 which will probably be Cape Armours with the light on it. 



I wrote last time from Hawkesbury in the Gut of Canso. We laid 

 there all day Monday, July 6th, as the wind, southeast in the 

 harbor, was judged by everybody to be northeast out in George's 

 Bay, and consequently dead ahead for us. Monday evening, at the 

 invitation of the purser, we all went down aboard the " State of 

 Indiana," the regular steamer of the "State Line" between Char- 

 lottetown, P. E. I., and Boston, touching at Halifax, and in the 

 Gut. 



After going ashore we stayed on the wharf till she left, singing 

 college songs, giving an impromptu athletic exhibition, etc., to the 

 intense delight of about fifty small boys (I can't conceive where 

 they all came from), and the two or three hundred servant girls 

 going home to P. E. I. for a summer vacation. 



I would put in here parenthetically, that since writing the above 

 I have been on deck helping jibe the mainsail, as we have changed 

 our course to about east by north, having rounded a couple of small 

 low, sandy islands off the Bay of St. John, and now point straight 

 into the strait of Belle Isle. 



In the afternoon we examined some of the old red sandstone 

 which underlies all that part of Cape Breton Island, found some 

 good specimens, and some very plain and deep glacial scratches. 

 There is also some coal and a good deal of shale in with the sand- 

 stone. 



We had a good opportunity to see this, since the railroad connect- 

 ing Port Hawkesbury with Sidney is new, having started running 



