A Labrador Spring 



CHAPTER I 



A LABRADOR SPRING 

 " Come, gentle Spring, ethereal Mildness, come." Thomson. 



OOME years ago in Labrador in late July, 

 I was interested to see within the space 

 of a few yards all stages of the seasons from 

 mid-winter to mid-summer. In the shelter 

 of a rugged cliff was a snow-drift as white and 

 devoid of life as winter itself. At its edge, for 

 the space of a few inches, the ground was bare 

 and brown; grasses and procumbent willows 

 showed no evidence of life. A little further 

 away the first signs of spring were visible in the 

 swelling buds of the willows ; a few feet further 

 and one came on the bake-apple and Labrador 

 tea in bud; still further removed in space 

 from grim winter, they were as much in blos- 

 som as in mid-summer, while at a distance of 



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