A SUMMER SAIL TO THE LABRADOR COAST 197 



INDIAN HARBOUR, LABRADOR. 



The anchor is dropped at Burnt Harbour. The ' skipper ' 

 puts the fishing-party off in a row boat, and after proceeding four 

 miles all are finally landed on Separation Point, dividing the White 

 Bear from the Eagle River. Here there is a fishing hut. Large 

 trout and salmon are taken in the nets. The mouth of this river 

 is exceedingly shoal, coursing in a broad stream over a sandbank 

 strewn with boulders. The little boat is dragged and pushed four 

 miles up stream to the foot of the Falls, where camp is pitched at 

 the edge of one of the most beautiful pools that the heart of angler 

 could desire. The black flies and mosquitoes are, however, a plague 

 of full Egyptian quality, and their persecutions can only be mitigated 

 by raising a 'smudge ', as a thick smoke is called, from burning 

 damp moss. Without netting to protect one at night and thick 

 veiling by day to keep the swarms of insect life out of one's mouth, 

 ears, and eyes, existence would be well-nigh intolerable. 



The falls are really a succession of cascades, making a descent 

 of about seventy-five feet. The river here narrows its channel to 

 scarcely a hundred feet of breadth. The fishing is sometimes 

 excellent, although there are times when one may exhaust every 

 fly in his book and fail to hook a single fish, although one is posi- 

 tively certain that he is casting over scores of salmon. When 

 they are rising the kind of fly seems to be not very material. The 

 ' yellow legs ', and the standard flies such as silver doctor, fairy, black 

 dose, and ranger will apparently all serve equally well. The Para- 

 dise and Eagle Rivers are inferior to the White Bear. There is 

 no doubt that the seals keep worrying the salmon a great deal, 

 and this may account for the occasional caprice of their conduct. 



