ARRIVAL OF THE MAILMAN. 227 



a small card of the required size, while the knot is tied and the 

 whole is drawn tight. When made the knot comes on the ridge of 

 the card and cannot be slipped ; this forms a string of loops into 

 each one of which the needle is passed while a new series of loops 

 are knotted on the card just below these. In this way the netter 

 proceeds with twine, or needle or card, of any size, and fashions a 

 tightly knotted network of any size he may desire. In this way all 

 the cod seines, nets or traps, are made, while the six inch seal mesh, 

 and the quarter or eighth inch bottom to the dip net or lance seine, 

 undergo the same process. The work, however, is quite easy and 

 most fascinating. 



Wednesday the 20th. Great has been the joy of all hands to-day. 

 The mailman has at last arrived with news from home. Our last 

 letter bore the postmark of Sept. 23, and here it is over seven 

 months since knowing whether those we left at home are dead or 

 alive, or our country prosperous. How eagerly those letters were 

 read, and the papers studied, I will leave you to imagine. It was 

 indeed a joyful day. 



The winter mail for the coast of Labrador arrives, usually, some 

 time the latter end of March, by special carrier. This man starts 

 from Bersimis, which is a small village about one hundred and forty 

 or fifty miles from Quebec, and for which place the mail starts from 

 Quebec on or about the first of February, about the fifteenth of 

 that month. He travels on foot with snowshoes — sometimes by 

 komatik — with the mail upon his back in a stout leathern bag, and 

 makes daily marches of from fifteen to thirty miles, according to 

 the weather and the travelling. Though the distance between 

 Bersimis and Esquimaux Point, the end of the route generally for 

 the first carrier, is only about two hundred and six direct 

 miles, it becomes at least a quarter to a third more by the route 

 taken, since there are bays to go round and rivers to cross ; so 

 that often instead of ten it takes twenty days to accomplish the 

 distance. It is forwarded to Bersimis from Quebec, I believe, by 

 coach, this being the stage limit ; should it be late, however, the 

 time is extended so much. As there are houses every few miles 



