CRUISE OF LA BELLE MARGUERITE 



priest, and in the heat of the argument, they 

 exclaimed " may we lose every hair of our 

 bodies if this vile one is appointed." The priest 

 had his way, and they both began to lose their 

 hair. One in fright and repentance made his 

 peace with the priest, and all was well. Not 

 so the stubborn telegraph operator, and to 

 this day he is as devoid of hair as is an apple. 



On the eastern side of the river, which we 

 crossed in one of the numerous small boats left 

 on its sandy shores, were a few more houses and 

 a large church and a priests' house. From the 

 latter a straight path led along the top of a 

 ridge, an old raised sea beach, bordered 

 on either side with thickly growing white 

 spruces. Beyond lay the beach four miles 

 long, backed by shifting sand dunes, and at 

 the end of the beach was the Great Natash- 

 quan River with its little Indian village. 



It was on this beach that we saw a pair of 

 piping plovers, with their sweet mournful 

 calls, a bird that has not been recorded for 

 Labrador before, and a splendid Caspian tern 

 flew by so close that we could surely identify 

 it. Audubon had found this bird here in 1833 

 and Frazer in 1884 had discovered a breeding 

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