CAPE BRETON FISHERMEN 



159 



At Ellis Bay, we had much contact with the Cape Breton 

 fishing crews. It was a fair shelter against the easterly gales 

 which seemed the standard weather of the region. These folk 

 interested me greatly. As compared with the New England 

 sailors, they were miserably poor in ship's outfit and all else of 

 the unessentials ; at heart they were as sound a folk as I have 

 ever found, largely of the Highland Scotch stock, mingled with 

 the French of the Acadian colonies. They were essentially Celts, 

 and many of them spoke only Gaelic. Their innate courtesy, 

 and the fact that they did not "rub into " us the matter of the 

 war between the States as the Nova-Scotians and the New- 

 Brunswickers were wont to do helped to the friendliness we 

 soon reached. Our relations began with a Sunday afternoon 

 visit of a crew from a craft anchored near us. I opened to 

 them my bag of tobacco, holding the stuff then popular with 

 students. It did not contain much that was noxious, being 

 composed mainly, as I had found on careful examination, of 

 willow bark and various kinds of aromatic beans. The skipper 

 then produced from his pocket a cloth, which, being unrolled, 

 disclosed the remains of a dudeen with part of the stem about 

 an inch long. After a few whiffs, he passed it to the mate; 

 and thus it went the round of the party Indian-fashion. I did 

 not at once see the meaning of this passage of the pipe, but 

 found that it was the only one left in their ship. I asked them 

 how they liked my brand ; they said it was better than moss, 

 which they had been smoking for some months. Now was the 

 time to bring out our store of pipes and navy tobacco. Each 

 was given a pipe and a pound of the rank stuff, few kings 

 have had a chance to bestow such largess. The dear fellows 

 would not take more than a pound apiece even when pressed 

 to do so. They said that, mixed with moss, it would serve until 

 they were home again. 



At Anticosti, and afterward at Mingan on the Labrador shore, 

 I saw for the first time scurvy, that ancient woe of the seas and 

 of the lands as well. Nearly every crew had cases of it, and in 



