THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 77 



through the ice. Sea-birds are nesting all along the coast 

 on the islands and rocks, and foxes have their young. 

 Many people gather the eggs and store them for eating. 

 Traps are all taken in by the first day, as the fur is now 

 losing colour and the long "king" hairs fall. Seals are 

 beating north; swatching or shooting them from the ice 

 pans as they come up to take breath forms a very favourite 

 pastime. Old harps and bedlamer seals are caught on 

 southern Labrador in great frame nets. Farther north 

 the Eskimo are hunting the walrus. The deer are all going 

 north and taking to the hills. The native bears leave their 

 caves; any white bears that have gone south on the floes 

 begin to work north again. 



June. Most of the snow has gone, though in places it 

 remains to the water-level. Ground is still hard frozen, 

 with occasional frosts at night. Arctic ice still besets the 

 coast. Fishing vessels work- down along the straits and 

 the southern part of the east coast. Some years the mail 

 boat gets as far as Hamilton Inlet; other years ice inside 

 the islands is as hard as at any time in the winter. In the 

 straits the cod-fishery is in full swing, while on the east coast 

 the southerners in their schooners are up the bays get- 

 ting wood for firing, for stages, etc. Americans, Canadians, 

 and West Coast Newfoundlanders are trawling in the straits 

 and Gulf. The sea is very calm, owing to the ice outside. 

 The brilliancy of the sun, the innumerable icebergs, the 

 return of the whales, and the fleets of fishing vessels make 

 the scenic effects some of the best in the year. In the inlets 

 the salmon and trout fisheries are being prosecuted. Deer 

 seek the hills to avoid the mosquitoes. The does are with 

 their fawns in the woods. Black bear seek the fish along 



