ANXIETY FOR THE WOOD. 135 



darkened clouds, that everywhere enveloped the sky shutting out 

 the faintest shadow of blue, began to send down rain in torrents. 

 We now began to realize that a Labrador hurricane was fairly 

 upon us. Soon the rain gave place to hail, then the hail to rain 

 again, and even fierce flurries of snow scattered huge flakes in 

 every direction. The wind blew harder than ever, and it soon be- 

 came dangerous to go outside the door. About two o'clock in the 

 afternoon the tide reached so great a height as again to threaten 

 the woodpile in front of the house, and though this was placed 

 higher up on the beach than last year even, and very near the 

 house, the waves reached the foot of the pile, and gradually began 

 to lap against its butts as if to undermine it ; there was real 

 danger that if we did not lash it with ropes the whole pile would 

 be carried away with the tide. 



In this cold region, wood is by no means as abundant as it is in 

 most countries. Here the coast produces little save stunted 

 growths of fir, spruce, and birch ; the latter only is really fit for 

 firewood. Generally each man is obliged to go up some of the 

 rivers near his abode, and cut his own wood from the larger 

 growths ten, fifteen, or even twenty miles inland. There the 

 trees are from twenty to thirty or forty feet high, and six 

 to ten inches in diameter at their bases. These trees are trimmed, 

 then formed into rafts and towed down to the stage -head of the 

 dwelling for which they are intended. As all this requires labor, 

 the wood becomes correspondingly valuable. It is generally 

 kept by being piled with the butt ends resting upon the ground, 

 and the smaller ends resting upon each other in the air, like the 

 ends of the poles of an Indian mishwap. At Bonne Esperance 

 the wood is nearly all so piled ; it would thus be easily undermined, 

 and probably all lost if carried away by the tide. Hurricanes are 

 no respecters of woodpiles, and we expected each moment that it 

 would be necessary to brave the tempest and rush out and lash the 

 pile lest the waves should carry it bodily away. 



About four o'clock the tide turned, but the wind had increased 

 rather than diminished ; and blow it did, hard and strong, fierce and 



