64 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



pigs had been isolated on an island near, the fisher- 

 men enjoying daily the bliss of anticipation. But 

 alas ! here the dogs proved equal to the occasion. 

 An on-shore wind had brought them the joyful news, 

 and that very morning the pigs disappeared, only 

 a few blood-stained bristles remaining to tell the 

 story of the crime. In one harbour a planter had 

 brought a sheep, but its isolation had so developed 

 its affection for its owner that it followed him every- 

 where, and he could not make up his mind to kill 

 it. Goats fare a little better : they have horns. 

 Yet in one place three nights in succession a goat 

 had been missed. A team of runaway dogs was 

 roaming near, but only approached the houses under 

 cover of night. All these animals are, however, the 

 perquisites of affluence, and belong almost entirely 

 to the planters from Newfoundland. Some few 

 bring fowls, which eke out a perilous existence on 

 suffrance of the dogs. At the Hudson Bay Company's 

 station of Rigolette, Mr. Wilson, the chief factor, told 

 me that two of his dogs got into his well-enclosed 

 yard, and in four minutes killed eight hens and tore 

 four goats to pieces. Among all these people no 

 resident doctor exists, nor is skilled aid of any kind 

 to be obtained in case of need; for the few minutes 

 in the summer that the mail steamer stays in any 

 harbour, and the irregular times of her calls, gives 

 the doctor on board no opportunity to render effective 

 aid. When sickness falls on the people no one knows 

 what it is, or how to treat it. Not knowing they 



