BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR. 



ON BOARD THE JULIA A. DECKER, ^ 

 ROCKLAND HARBOR, ME., 



September 23, 1891. ) 



The staunch little schooner has once more picked a safe path 

 through the dangers of fog, rocks and passing vessels, and her 

 party are safely landed at the home port, before quite two weeks 

 of the college term and two weeks of making up had piled up 

 against its members. 



The crew that weighed anchor at Rigolette on the morning of 

 September 2nd, when the wind came and the tide had turned, 

 was a happy one, for from Professor to " cookee " we all felt 

 that we were truly homeward bound, and that we had accom- 

 plished our undertaking without any cause for lasting regret. 

 The mail steamer, whose passengers had joined in the jollifica- 

 tion of the night preceding, being independent of the wind, had 

 started ahead of us. Another race was on with the " Curlew," 

 this time a merely friendly contest, without the former anxiety 

 as to some other party's getting the lead of ours in the trip up 

 the Grand River. But the result was not different this time. A 

 fine breeze kept us going all day and the following night. But 

 the next day the fog came. It was no different from the cold, 

 damp, land-mark obscuring mist of the Maine coast in its facility 

 in hiding from view everything we most wanted to see in order 

 to safely find the harbor that we knew must be near at hand, 

 though we could not tell just where. A headland, looming up 

 to twice its real height in the fog about it, was rounded, and the 

 lead followed in the hope that it would take us to the desired 

 haven. Soon a fishing boat hailed, and a voice, quickly followed 

 by a man, emerged from the fog and shouted that if we went 

 farther on that course we would be among the shoals. We 

 were told we had passed the mouth of the harbor, and so turn- 

 ing back, tried to follow our guide, but he soon disappeared. 



