344 Life of Audubon. 



Jones lost a son, fourteen years of age, a few years* ago 

 in the snow, in consequence of a servant imprudent!} 

 turning the dogs from their course, thinking they were 

 wrong. The dogs obeyed the command, and took them 

 towards Hudson's Bay. When the weather cleared the 

 servant found his mistake ; but, alas ! it was too late for 

 the tender boy, and he froze to death in the servant's 

 arms. 



" We saw also to-day the carcasses of fifteen hundred 

 seals stripped of their skins, piled up in a heap, and the 

 dogs feeding on them. The stench filled the air for half 

 a mile around. They tell us the dogs feed on this filthy 

 flesh until the next seal season, tearing it piecemeal when 

 frozen in winter. 



" Mr. Jones's house was being painted white, his oil- 

 tubs were full, and the whole establishment was perfumed 

 with odors which were not agreeable to my olfactory 

 nerves. The snow is to be seen in large patches on 

 every hill around us, while the borders of the water- 

 courses are fringed with grasses and weeds as rank as 

 any to be found in the Middle States in like situations. 

 I saw a small brook with fine trout, but what pleased me 

 more was to find the nest of the shore-lark ; it was em- 

 bedded in moss, so exactly the color of the bird, that 

 when the mother sat on it, it was impossible to distin- 

 guish her. We see Newfoundland in the distance, look- 

 ing like high mountains, whose summits are far above 

 the clouds at present. Two weeks since the harbor 

 where we now are was an ice-field, and not a vessel 

 could approach it ; since then the ice has sunk, and none 

 is to be seen far or near. 



" July 28. A tremendous gale has blown all day, and 

 I have been drawing. The captain and the rest of our 

 company went off in the storm to visit Blanc Sablons, 

 four miles distant The fishermen have corrupted the 



