SALMON FISHING IN LABRADOR. 161 



turn into cape pigeons and kittiwakes, and them kind 

 of birds, and when they think it's rough and kind of 

 dangerous, they naturally like to hover about their 

 friends to protect them." If angels visit earth in 

 these modern and wicked times, there are many garbs 

 they could assume less beautiful and less suitable than 

 that of the snowy- white sea-gull. 



At breakfast our captain expressed much satisfaction 

 at the bad weather having passed, and particularly at 

 its being so unusually calm, for he much feared, what 

 with the usual incorrectness of dead reckoning and 

 strong tides which exist to a greater extent here * 

 than probably in any other portion of the globe 

 that he was some way off his course. On taking 

 soundings, the depth indicated by the lead line and 

 the composition of the bottom so completely differed 

 from what we expected that there scarcely remained 

 a doubt that we were astray ; still we were drifting 

 very rapidly to the north-west, the fog, if anything, 

 growing denser. About eleven our captain, having 

 given the look-out strict injunctions to keep his 

 eyes open while he again went below to examine 

 his chart, I followed suit. I could scarcely have been 

 in the cabin over five minutes when the schooner 

 received a severe shock, which caused me to rush on 



* In the Bay of Fundy the tide sometimes rises over twenty feet. 



M 



