THE MARKED BOWDOIN SPRUCE. 47 



level. At the point they came out upon it, it was nearly two hun- 

 dred yards wide, a heavy boiling rapid. Walking down the great 

 blocks of rock which form the shore, the river appeared to nar- 

 row and at 11.45 A - M -> the Grand Falls were first seen. 



After making pictures of the Falls a feeling of reaction man- 

 ifested itself in Gary's physical condition, and he remarked, " I 

 do not wish to go farther, I need sleep." Cole, as assistant, 

 had avoided the wear and anxiety of leadership. His athletic 

 work at Bowdoin, in throwing the shot and hammer and run- 

 ning on the Topsham track, had given him stored energy of 

 arm and leg. This reserve strength prompted him to press 

 forward and see more of a region new to human eyes. Leav- 

 ing his hatchet with Gary, now rolled up in his blanket, with 

 the hope and expectation that on waking he would use the 

 same in preparing fuel and cooking supper, Cole pressed for- 

 ward into the strange and unknown country three or four miles, 

 and then, for a final view of the location, climbed the highest 

 tree he could find and from its top surveyed the waste of land 

 and river. He stood thus exalted near the center of the vast 

 peninsula of Labrador. Four hundred and fifty miles to the 

 east lay the wide expanse of Hamilton Inlet. Four hundred 

 and fifty miles to the north lay Cape Chudleigh, towards which 

 he could imagine the Julia A. Decker, vainly as it proved, point- 

 ing her figure head through fog and ice. Only six hundred 

 miles due south the granite chapel of Bowdoin College points 

 heavenward both its uplifted hands. Four hundred and fifty 

 miles to the west rolled the waves of that great inland ocean, 

 Hudson's Bay, into whose depths, Henry Hudson, after his 

 penetrations to northern waters above Spitzbergen, after 

 his pushing along the eastern coast of Greenland, after his 

 magnificent and successful exploration of the American coast 

 from Maine to Virginia, penetrating Delaware bay and river 

 and sailing up that river crowned by the Palisades and the 

 hights of the Catskills, honored with his name and whose waters 

 bear the largest portion of the commercial wealth of our own 

 country ; still fascinated by the vision of a northwest passage 

 that intrepid explorer penetrated into the waters of the un- 



