A LABRADOR SPRING 



these eiders! The nesting birds, particularly 

 the females, are easily shot, and at Piashte-bai 

 I saw several of their carcasses spitted and 

 being dried and smoked in front of an Indian 

 wigwam. 



We met with several similar camping parties 

 of Indians, although we were rather too early 

 in the season to find many such, but at Mingan 

 and at the Natashquan River we saw large 

 numbers of the Montagnais. At the latter 

 place they have a small village of wooden 

 houses on the right bank of the mouth of the 

 Great Natashquan River some four miles from 

 the white settlement at the Little Natashquan. 

 Having spent the winter in the interior, hunting 

 and trapping, they had arrived here in May, and 

 it happened on May 3ist, the day we tramped 

 over through the dunes and along the beach 

 from Natashquan, that we arrived just as the 

 Indians were embarking for Musquarro. This 

 point, some fifteen miles farther down the 

 coast, is an Indian mission, presided over by 

 a Roman Catholic priest, who goes there once a 

 year at this season for the purpose of celebrating 

 the various rites of the church feasts and 

 fasts, baptisms, marriages and funeral services 



160 



