CHAPTER VI. 



Cape Chidley — Port Burwell. 



IN HUDSON STRAIT — DISCOVERY OF A MAGNIFICENT HARBOUR — THE 

 GRANDEUR OF M'LELAN STRAIT — THE RUINS OF NEWNANGO — 

 THE ESKIMO — AN ESKIMO CHIEF AND PRINCESS. 



Where the desolate waters from Ungava Sea 

 Meet the swift flowing current at the Cape Chidley ; 

 Where the sun circles low in the southern sky 

 And the sea-gulls drearily scream as they fly. 



_. ROM Nachvak we took our course toward Cape Chidley, 

 arriving off Hudson Strait at daylight on Sunday morning, 

 August 3rd. There was a dense fog prevailing, and we were 

 compelled to lay to until Tuesday, dodging about in the 

 waters at the mouth of Davis's Strait. We were so anxious to get 

 into the Strait toward Hudson's Bay, that the time appeared long ; 

 but I managed to engage myself among the ship's crew, much of the 

 time hearing from them many curious reminiscences of sea-faring 

 life. Among their number was nearly every kind of sailor-character. 

 The old and the young, the retired and the talkative, the wicked 

 and the good, the prudent and the reckless, the mean and the 

 generous-hearted ; but altogether I think they were a good lot of 

 fellows. 



The least but not the most uninteresting of the crew, was 

 Johnny, the Neptune's scullion. I suppose all well-regulated vessels 

 have a scullion. I do not know fully what the word means 

 in its nautical application, except in so far as Johnny's posi- 

 tion, and conduct, and treatment indicated ; and, judging from all 

 these, I should say, although I was informed to the contrary, that 

 a ship's scullion was a boy engaged to do a little of everything, with 



