140 FOREBODINGS. 



coast. The gentleman with whom I tarried (Wm. W. H. Whiteley), 

 finding that he could dispose of them to good advantage, sent out 

 boats to pick up all that they could find, while he offered to purchase 

 for cash, or trade from the little shop of provisions and dry goods, 

 of all those who should bring him either logs or boards. In this 

 way he gathered a large lot of lumber. The huge logs had been 

 hauled above a supposable high water mark — for this heavy pine 

 and oak tmiber requires a dozen men to remove a single log — and 

 been allowed to accumulate on all sides about the stage-head, 

 which was thus closely hemmed in with these solid timbers, many 

 of which were eighteen inches in breadth and width, and forty to 

 fifty-four feet in length. There they had lain, rising and falling 

 lazily at the highest tide only, for the past two weeks. The stage 

 head, of which I have spoken, is a sort of shed built out into 

 the water upon logs that inclose huge masses of stones to weight 

 the platform and hold it in place, while the main building is propped 

 up with upright posts, buried some distance in the earth and mud 

 below, supporting the flooring at a distance of some eight feet from 

 the bottom at low tide. 



At the stage-head the boats are fastened, and here the fish are 

 cured and packed ; here are a great majority of the other stores of 

 the fishermen, — the boats are housed for the winter inside the 

 building ; while barrels of fish, flour, and hogsheads of cod oil, 

 with all sorts of implements and utensils are stored also. There is 

 often a second stage separated by a platform from the first, on 

 which platform are stored boards and plank of various kinds, 

 hogsheads empty or full of refuse cod liver, or blubber as it is 

 termed, while the stage house itself stands farther back, the platform 

 with its railing being nearest the sea. While all this hurricane is 

 raging, and while it is almost impossible to walk ahead a dozen 

 steps, it seems proper to "take a look at the stage" to see that all 

 is right there ; and what do we see ? In this little sort of natural 

 harbor the waves are stirred with almost the force that they are in 

 the open sea, while the water breaks to the bottom in huge billows 

 which, lifting themselves in their fury, rush forward and hurl them- 



