128 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



impossible to occupy it this season. We therefore 

 decided, as soon as the shell was finished and all 

 done that could be without cutting the chimneys, to 

 board up the windows, store the property in it, and 

 leave it for the winter under care of the nearest 

 " Livyere." Meanwhile Dr. Cur wen and Nurse 

 Williams would remain on the Albert, and use it as 

 their hospital. This place is the centre of a very 

 large number of stations, and they had already found 

 ample scope for work. Just before we left in the 

 Princess May, both doctor and sister were summoned 

 over the island to treat a woman on whom a fish 

 stage had fallen, while they already had in the ship's 

 hospital a young girl dying of consumption. The 

 condition in which some of our patients were when 

 first admitted was horrible ; the condition of the 

 women from the green-fish catchers especially; 

 for with scarcely any privacy, and scarcely any 

 opportunities for washing, it was not to be won- 

 dered at that vermin often abounded. The experi- 

 ence of both our nurses tallied in this respect, and 

 a good wash, clean clothes, and a few days' nursing 

 always appeared to work marvels, even in appar- 

 ently hopeless cases. When it became evident that 

 this poor girl must die, she expressed her determi- 

 nation to go home by the first opportunity, that, if 

 possible, she might reach her family in Newfoundland 

 before the end came. 



It was ten o'clock at night, and a blustering 

 evening in Cape Webeck Harbour, when we next 



