LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 191 







nually. All along the north shore, from Belle Isle to lati- 

 tude 57, are fishing-stations busy with men and women 

 during the fishing season, who come. from Canada, New- 

 foundland, and the United States. At hundreds of rocky 

 islets are fish-stages for dressing fish; and "flakes" of poles 

 or brush strew every level rock, covered with codfish drying 

 in the sun. 



All along the northern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 and through Belle Isle Strait to Cape Charles, the coast is 

 for the most part walled with precipitous cliffs over which 

 cascades tumble at intervals, and through whose occasional 

 gaps rivers flow into the sea. But from Cape Charles north- 

 ward, the highlands recede, and a belt of islands varying in 

 width from nine to eleven miles, girts the coast. The pas- 

 sages between these islands are denominated " tickles," and 

 during the fishing season swarm with vessels at anchor, or 

 passing through ; for, be it known, the outside passage is by 

 no means safe or easy. Even in most propitious weather, 

 gales and sea-fogs arise without warning, and, at all times, 

 vessels must run under the lee of the land at night for an- 

 chorage and shelter. Until the month of August, icebergs 

 come drifting down, rendering navigation extremely danger- 

 ous. Currents, created by the undertow of these vast moving 

 bodies which float two-thirds under water, always set toward 

 the bergs. Often the bergs, worn by the waves, and melted 

 by the increasing temperature as they move southward, be- 

 come top-heavy and " turn fluke," or they burst asunfler, and 

 strew the surface of the ocean with acres upon acres of their 

 fragments. 



Although several of. the rivers of Northern Labrador 

 afford good rod-fishing, yet a trip to this inhospitable region 

 can hardly 'be recommended, unless, indeed, the angler be 

 enthusiastic enough to volunteer for a Polar Expedition. 

 Still, a voyage in a steam-yacht has more than once been 

 made by parties of gentlemen with satisfactory, reward of 

 novelty and strange experiences ; and the cruise has even 



