ANTICOSTI. 



'<?) LL along the coast of Labrador the ocean sets mto 

 the land by numerous estuaries, creeks, and inlets, 



"which intersecting, form a chain of islands of every 

 conceivable size and shape. Most of them are 

 merely barren rocks that hug the main land. 

 Others are isolated hummocks away out in the ocean where 

 the surf never ceases to thunder, covered at all times with 

 uncouth wild-fowl and screaming gulls, while the air above 

 is filled with myriads constantly hovering. On some islands 

 there is a thin deposit of earth and moss into which the 

 puflSns and parokeets burrow, while others are relieved by 

 a scanty growth of juniper bushes, among which the eider- 

 ducks build their nests, hning them with silky down whose 

 market value is five dollars per pound. In the breeding 

 season all these islands are literally paved with eggs — eggs 

 of coots, puffins, razor-billed auks, bottle-nosed ducks, shell- 

 drakes, shags, sea-ducks, gannets, hagden, murre, sea-pigeons, 

 gulls, tinkers, et id omne genus. At the Smithsonian In- 

 stitute they have a record of 1G9 varieties of land and sea 

 birds known to inhabit Labrador and its coast. The air 

 above and around the islands is filled with mp-iads constantly 

 hovering, aiid the whiiT of their rapid circling flight is like 

 the noise of a factory. To and from their feeding-grounds 

 in the far-off sea, foraging parties are constantly winging 



