A SUMMER SAIL TO THE LABRADOR COAST 187 



skies, to which the fantastic shapes of half-melted icebergs lend an 

 indescribable touch of weird and delicate beauty. One may derive 

 much pleasure from watching the gambols of porpoise, whales, and 

 grampus, and all that marvellously rich marine life which enlivens 

 these northern waters in the brief summer season. The bird life 

 is also an attractive feature, for although on the whole wild-fowl 

 are not seen in any great numbers, yet there are occasional bits of 

 coast which they make their own, where many interesting species 

 litter the shelves of precipitous cliffs with their eggs and young. 

 Then there are the ever-present wandering seals, or ' rangers', 

 gliding off the slippery rocks with a ponderous flop, or bobbing up 

 their round glittering heads in all the broad bays as well as in the 

 deep narrow fiords. Remnants these are of those marvellous herds 

 which have contributed their quota to fill the holds of the sealing 

 steamers. 



Not least of all is the human interest of these lonely and desolate 

 shores. The innumerable white sails of the fishermen pushing boldly 

 to the north through the ice-flecked sea to gather in the rich spoils 

 of fish strewn over the marine banks in lavish plenty, and the un- 

 ceasing labours of the ' livyeres ', or settlers, who all summer long 

 go on fishing and curing their catch in the sun, spreading it over 

 broad acres of wicker ' stages '. The teeming life of the sea which 

 washes the rock-bound coast of Labrador is simply marvellous. 

 The peninsula stands out on the Atlantic Ocean bounded on the 

 north by the Hudson and Davis Straits with their floating ice glaciers. 

 Past the shores of the peninsula sweeps the broad, deep, and powerful 

 arctic current, bearing with it enormous masses of floating ice until 

 late in the summer. When the procession has at length passed 

 southwards to melt in the warmer currents, the salmon appear 

 at the mouths of the bays and the rivers, and the cod, following 

 their natural food, the caplin, move shoreward from the deeper 

 waters. 



The numerous fishing banks and shoals lying off the Atlantic 

 coast on the edge of the continental shelf, so to speak, which form 

 the feeding grounds of the cod, are found to swarm with countless 

 varieties of animalculae, attracting the smaller fishes, which in their 

 turn attract their larger brethren. These occupy an estimated 

 area of 7,000 square miles. The fisheries during the summer give 

 lucrative employment to nearl} 7 30,000 persons, and in good years the 

 catch exceeds 1,000,000 dollars in value. Pressing after the im- 

 mense shoals of that curious little fish, the caplin, and after the 

 other bait fish, such as the herring and squid, which often litter the 

 shelving beaches as they are crowded ashore by the serried ranks 

 of their comrades in the rear, besides the cod come armies of such 



