TRIP TO LABRADOR. 27 



CHAPTER II. 



Trip to Labrador — Arrival at Montreal — Arrival at Quebec, and Description 

 of the City. 



It was in the early part of September that I first formed the idea 

 of a trip to Labrador, where I hoped to remain during the winter 

 months, and the following season. I had been working hard 

 during the previous year, and forming an idea that a trip to 

 Labrador and a study of the natural history of that region would 

 be of great use in the determination of the variety of species and 

 their geographical distribution in migration in the study of New 

 England Natural History, I determined to profit by an opportunity 

 offered and start for the coast. 



Knowing that the last vessel left Quebec for Labrador some- 

 time during the above mentioned month, a letter and a telegram 

 apprised us (myself and two friends who also wished to go) that 

 we must start for Quebec at once if we wished to reach this means 

 of conveyance before it was too late. My letters reached me on 

 Thursday the 9th of the month, and this gave but two days to pre- 

 pare for a journey of over a thousand miles, and an absence of at 

 least a year in the cold region of the North, since I must leave by 

 the late train on Saturday night to be in time to reach the vessel 

 which the letter said would probably start Tuesday from Quebec. 



The suddenness of the decision which I had thus formed will be 

 seen when I say that many of my friends saw the news first in the 

 papers before even my letters reached them, though I had written 

 as soon as it was possible after deciding. Intending to purchase 



