58 HUNTING CAMPS. 



that the mail-boat doctor was " putting cook to 

 rights." 



Fanny's Harbour is an island settlement, and as the 

 " livyere," who carries the mail across to the mainland 

 had, for some unexplained reason, departed on the 

 day previous to the arrival of the Virginia Lake, we 

 were in a sense marooned upon the island, where, 

 however, we added to the provision list by shooting an 

 Arctic hare and a brace of ducks. 



The gale held for two days before, weary of waiting, 

 I at length prevailed upon the head of the settlement, 

 Capt. Tom Spracklin, to lend me a trap-boat with a 

 crew to row her, and in the black of dawn, after a most 

 glorious display of Aurora Borealis, the " search-lights of 

 God," we set off for Davis Inlet, twenty miles away. 



Before leaving St. John's I had arranged with the 

 Reid Company to send the Virginia Lake to call for us 

 at Fanny's Harbour about the 17th or 18th of October. 

 In view of possible contingencies and to secure as much 

 time for hunting as possible, I purchased the trap-boat, 

 and in the event it proved useful. 



We started before dawn, as at that hour the wind 

 had died away and the dangerous passage between the 

 twin rocks which guard the entrance to Fanny's Harbour 

 seemed practicable. Soon the settlement was standing 

 behind us, a compact rocky mass against the dawn, as 

 the boat, propelled by six enormous and clumsy oars, 

 crept slowly out from its shadow. To starboard the 

 swell was bursting upon the bases of seven or eight 

 huge icebergs, while upon the port side of our little 

 craft lay the wild coast of Labrador, low and bare until 

 it rose into the massive headland of Cape Harrigan. 



Rain commenced to fall at dawn, and about midday 



