A LABRADOR SPRING 



the white of the snowbanks. On visiting them 

 I found a camp well on the way to completion. 

 Each was doing his or her part, chiefly hers. 

 The women were gathering balsam boughs and 

 thatching them into thick springy beds for 

 their wigwams, which were to be erected in 

 flat places from which they had first scratched 

 away the moss. A man and woman were 

 busily engaged in scraping the hair from a seal 

 skin, keeping it wet in a pot of water placed 

 between them, the first stage in the manu- 

 facture of skin-boots. Children and dogs were 

 everywhere, and while the former showed 

 timidity and even terror, the latter showed 

 belligerency at my approach. The terror dis- 

 played by the little Indian children at the sight 

 of a stranger was as marked as was the fear- 

 lessness and placidity on the part of the infant- 

 in-arms under the same circumstances. 



There seemed to be four families, five men 

 and five or six women young and old, seven or 

 eight girls and boys of all ages, and an infant, 

 not to mention numerous Indian dogs and a 

 cat. 



My communications with them were in- 

 teresting to me, but not very satisfactory, as I 



164 



