226 CAPTAIN CART WRIGHT'S 



tliat it is very good travelling across the country, 

 and all the marshes being clear of snow, they can 

 get food as they travel along. I am the more con- 

 firmed in this opinion, as I never knew them cross 

 the ice at this time of the year, until the sun had 

 thawed the surface sufficiently to enable them to 

 keep their feet. The bridge of ice at the east end 

 of the small island at the head of the harbour, 

 broke up last night. 



Clear, frosty weather. 



Monday, May 18, 1778. At six this morning, 

 taking the cooper and Jack with me, I went up 

 the harbour in the Roebuck, to look for the lost 

 traps, but found only one of them. I sent Jack to 

 strike up the deer-traps, but we could get at only 

 one ; the other being yet covered with much snow. 

 In the mean time the cooper and I sat watching 

 for geese, but we could not get a shot as mqtj few 

 were stirring; but we saw a great many black- 

 ducks. Two swallows ^ appeared today, which is 

 very early for them, and I observed a stem of 

 grass shewing its seed, although not yet two 

 inches out of the ground. 



Monday, June 1, 1778. Early this morning we 

 took up the net and hung it upon the scaffold to 

 dry; there was a pike of six pounds and a half 

 in it. I went to the beaver-house, out of which 

 the two beavers were caught last fall, and tailed 

 a trap near it. In a small pond, which has been 

 made by the beavers a little above, we found an 



' The tree swallow, Tridoprocne h' color, bank swallow, Rijmria riparia, 

 and barn swallow, Hirundo erylhrogaaler , all occur in Labrador. 



