206 ' HOW THE INHABITANTS LIVE. 



we had taken up our quarters for the night, we gave ourselves to 

 the enjoyment of the clear, cool, evening air, and soon after supper 

 retired to sleep. The people in many places along the coast where 

 I have visited, at least the men, have a habit of closing their day's 

 work in winter with their supper. At that time all the work of the 

 day is supposed to be over, and after the meal the principal occu- 

 pation is visiting one's neighbors and either there or at home spend- 

 ing the evening in chatting, and smoking very poor and bad 

 smelling tobacco, which, however, seems to be the best the coast 

 affords. What would at home be thrown away as worthless is here 

 sold in large quantities for a high price. I mention this fact to 

 show the imposition often practised upon these people who are un- 

 able to help themselves, and who must either put up with it or go 

 without ; strange to say, most prefer to put up with the bad article, 

 and hundreds of hundred-weight boxes of bad tobacco are used 

 each season. Nearly all of the men on the coast smoke, and it is 

 very rare to find a man, old or young, to whom the pipe is a stranger, 

 or who does not use tobacco in one form or another. Even the 

 young boys smoke as soon as they can secure the necessary articles. 

 It seems to be a matter of pride with them here as elsewhere, and 

 the fellow who can begin the earliest and smoke the most tobacco 

 is the best fellow, and takes the lead among his comrades and 

 companions. 



The houses here are much like the houses elsewhere, a huge 

 kitchen and sitting-room with a small bedroom on the ground story, 

 and a loft with two rooms reached by a ladder leading to a small 

 aperture about two feet wide in the floor above. The bed or bunk 

 is roughly made, and more often the mattress simply lies on the floor. 

 The people with hardly an exception are fishermen, and the best 

 off are poor compared to what they might be should a spirit of 

 economy and industry take possession of them and drive away the 

 spirit of procrastination. The occupation during the day is chiefly 

 that of mending and netting nets and seines, or laying plans for 

 and chatting with neighbors on the next season's work among the 

 fisheries. The fishing season is usually from the first of May, the 



