THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 37 



any fishing parties that might be going out. It was diffi- 

 cult to know what to pay the fishermen for their services, 

 as the general medium of exchange throughout Labrador is 

 trade ; money is seldom used, and its relative value is but 

 dimly appreciated. As the natives do not know well the 

 value of their own money, American money caused great con- 

 fusion among them ; they took it, but they could not dis- 

 tinguish denominations a one-dollar bill meant as much to 

 them as a ten. 



Cod is the staple fish along the Labrador coast. They 

 can be hauled up almost anywhere, and though a mess of 

 fresh cod is by no means to be despised, still the catching 

 of them is not very fascinating sport. We do not care for 

 anything in life that is too easily acquired and cod is so dead 

 easy ! However, the fishermen do not take this point of view 

 the easier the fishing, and the more that come to their nets, the 

 merrier ; and so cod is a very popular fish about Labrador. 

 Indeed, in the local vernacular, cod alone is fish, salmon 

 is salmon, herring is herring, and trout is trout ; but cod is 

 fish, and nothing else is called fish. Such is the devotion to 

 cod at Cape Charles that the fishermen seem to swear by it, 

 for I often heard them mutter something that sounded very 

 much like " By Cod ! " 



But there is plenty of other sport besides cod -fishing. 

 There is, I was informed, excellent duck-shooting all along 

 the coast in the spring and autumn. Eider-ducks abound, 

 as do guillemots, puffin, murres, and auks. These birds 

 collect by the thousands, and will keep the sportsman just as 

 busy as he pleases. In July, during our brief stay, we found 

 the guillemot particularly abundant, and quite a number of 

 these birds were bagged. It is a very pretty bird, a glossy 

 black, with carmine legs and beak, but rather hard to kill, 

 because it dives at the flash ; it is very quick and nimble, 

 and can swim a great distance under water. When hit, it 



