LABRADOR JOURNAL 263 



offing breaks up but slowly; the ice has parted 

 from Cape North, by the outer Sister, to the inner 

 Gannet, and nearly in a north-west line from 

 thence. 



A clear, hot sun, which melted the snow fast. 



Suudaif, May 9, 1779. After breakfast I took 

 a walk to the end of Slink Point, in expectation 

 of seeing the ice broken up by the late gales of 

 wind; Init I could not observe that' it was more 

 so now than before; which convinces me, that 

 there must be a vast body of drift-ice still upon 

 the coast, extending to a great distance from 

 land; otherwise a swell must have rolled in, suf- 

 ficient to have ripped it up in every place which 

 is not land-locked. I killed a grouse with a ball, 

 out of my double-barrelled gun; observed that 

 Indian sallad made its appearance; and that the 

 mountain sallow was in bud. These are the first 

 instances of vegetation I have taken notice of 

 this spring. 



Friday, May 14, 1779. Islv. Daubeny visited his 

 traps this moraing and had the smallest w^hite- 

 fox T over saw; it weighed oidy six pounds and 

 three (juarters, although it was very fat, which is 

 a pound and a quai-ter less than the hares here. 

 T got an egg out of a butcher-bird's' nest, which 

 is in the top of ;i spruce-tree close to my house. 

 These birds build thcM*]' nests exactly in the same 

 maimer as house-sparrows - do, when they build 



' \orfhom Hhriko or })iifrhr'r bird, Lnrtiua hnrealvt. 

 * Kiiropoan houso Hparrow, failed in Arnorira " Enfjiish sparrow," 

 PoHner (lomenlicus, a pest that hafl fortunaloly not yet reached Labrador. 



