SALMON FISHING IN LABRADOR. 151 



native coast. Our meal passed pleasantly, and while 

 performing the office of host, his brusqueness dis- 

 appeared, and with it a good deal of the broad dialect. 

 The haggis was excellent, the bacon and chickens were 

 as good, and the West Indian preserves which formed 

 the dessert were of the best quality. As I stretched my 

 limbs under his table, in the snug little cabin, after 

 the cloth had been removed, and a kettle of boiling 

 water flanked with lemons had made its appearance, I 

 felt satisfied that there were worse lots in the world 

 than commanding a clipper schooner in the West 

 Indian trade. 



As the toddy circulated our companionship in- 

 creased, and to a question I asked in reference to his 

 success in the last voyage, he made the following 

 statement : " Well, sir, you see a man that com- 

 menced the world without a bawbee. My father and 

 mither were baith poor, and when I thought I had 

 enough schooling, our family being big, I bound my- 

 self as an apprentice on board a bark called the 

 Eilmore, that traded out of Clyde to the West Indies. 

 She was one of the old-fashioned sort, and would make 

 as much on a wind as a hay- stack. Still, she was a 

 snug little boat, strong as oak and dry as could be. 

 On the last run I made in her the captain took sick 

 and died, most before we lost sight of Cantire. This 



