ON CERTAIN HUMANITIES 283 



For many years an eel-catcher has spent his 

 summers in the pursuit of his craft, living in a 

 shanty in the dunes at Ipswich near Wigwam 

 Hill, and later at Hog Island. He had followed 

 the sea as cook, fisherman, and skipper. Eighteen 

 of these were spent in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 but only once did he set foot on Labrador soil 

 and that was at Little Meccatina Island, and \\v 

 stayed there only five minutes, he said, because he 

 was chilled by the barren aspect of the country 

 and eaten up by mosquitoes. Born on January 

 10, 1828, Captain Thurlow had retired from the 

 sea for many years and has lived in Newburyport, 

 but every summer he gets restless and, in 

 spite of his daughter's protests, would go to 

 Ipswich and take up the life of an eel-catcher and 

 clammer, living alone in his shanty. 



Ordered to vacate his summer home in the 

 dunes, where he was only a squatter, he procured 

 a dozen casks, and, with the friendly help of 

 some Italian workmen, moved his house to the 

 beach and securely lashed it to the casks. Tak- 

 ing advantage of the fiood tide he launched his 

 ark, and, with the aid of a long hawser, a couj^Ie 



