E. B. Delabarre, Ph. D. 115 



what seemed to be a favorable opportunity to conquer some 

 of them. To be sure, we would not have time in one day to 

 reach the mightiest peak of Eastern America, though we 

 were certain that it was not far away from us. But we could 

 at least attempt the highest mountain in the immediate 

 vicinity, and thus climb probably higher than any one had 

 ever been in Labrador, and certainly establish a record for 

 the highest measured peak. 



It was already late before we decided that the ship could 

 not start, and that it would be a good day for our enterprise. 

 It took but a few minutes to make our preparations for de- 

 parture, and to get together all that we would need for the 

 trip: a camera, two well-tested aneroid barometers, and a 

 meagre lunch of hard ship's biscuit and compressed "emer- 

 gency ration." We rowed over to Ford's house, and set out 

 from there at 9.50. The first mile of our way was to the 

 westward, across the alluvial flat at the base of Mt. Ford. 

 Its rich, moist soil, and the lower slopes of the mountains 

 rising out of it, were covered thickly with a sub-arctic autum- 

 nal vegetation. The poverty of animal Hfe was in great con- 

 trast with this wealth and variety among the plants. We had 

 seen during our stay hardly anything except noisy ravens and 

 hawks, and a small brown-and-white variety of owl. 



Our route led us over the boggy level, around numerous 

 diminutive ponds, along a slightly higher and drier grassy 

 mound, through thick willow clumps lining a brook, and 

 thence to the beginning of the uplands of the Goratsuk val- 

 ley, where we turned to the north. A much-beaten trail, 

 leading to Komaktorvik, another bay farther north, guided 

 us over a part of the way, but we lost it in a short stretch of 

 boggy land and rocks. Beyond us the valley rose gradually 



