ON THE LABRADOR. 75 



push ahead, but after a day spent toiling at the oars, which 

 were of the narrow-bladed pattern that girth some twelve 

 or fourteen inches below the grip, we found ourselves 

 wind-bound at nightfall. On the following day the weather 

 had become worse, and had it been necessary to cross 

 much open water we should have been forced to anchor. 

 Our way, however, lay among the islands, until we reached 

 the long rock-walled stretch of water which is called Windy 

 Tickle. In certain winds Windy Tickle is quite impass- 

 able, as the gales roar down it like a league-long funnel, 

 the sheer cliffs on either hand rising some hundreds of 

 feet from the level of the sea. 



As I had left most of our provisions with our kind friend 

 Mrs. Broomfield, we suddenly discovered that beyond a 

 little tea and tobacco and a half-loaf of bread our stock 

 was at an end. We therefore ran across to a rocky island 

 locally famed as the breeding place of the Arctic hare. 

 But the most careful search and earnest efforts of Sam, 

 Abraham, Jack, and Sandy all of whom probably for 

 the first time in their lives took part in a hare-drive re- 

 sulted only in the flushing of one or two twittering inhab- 

 itants of the isle which Sam called snowbirds, and which 

 were quite unworthy of a twelve-bore cartridge. The hares 

 were either altogether absent or remained in shy seclusion, 

 and food having become a necessity, I succeeded, amid 

 the plaudits of the crew, in massacring five gulls, one for 

 each man. These were rapidly skinned, placed in a large 

 iron pot and drawn out of it while the water was still al- 

 most lukewarm, but not before Sam, having discovered the 

 lack of salt, had found time to add a hatful of seawater ! 

 The birds, contrary to expectation, or because hunger is 

 so good a sauce, were much appreciated, and from that 

 time onwards until we arrived at Hopedale no herring gull 

 or blackback flew into sight without drawing the eager eyes 

 of the crew of the trap-boat. 



