EXPEDITIOX TO DAVIS STEAIT AND BAFFIX BAY 7 



bank and drawing water with buckets from a near-])y stream. Fresh 

 water for scriibbin<r clothes was also put into four open barrels on 

 deck. One member of the enuineer force had to be left in the Inter- 

 national' Grenfell Association Hospital at Battle Harbor, as he w^as 

 sulferino- from chnmic rheumatism that had been <j:reatly a<rgravated 

 by the raw and dani)) climate into which the Maiion had suddenly 

 come. Throu<rh the aid of the American consulate at St. Johns. New- 

 foundland, he was later furnished with transportation by conimercial 

 vessel back to the United States. 



There Avas little time to observe shore conditions at Battle Harbor, 

 but the quickest of inspections sufficed to show that here was an en- 

 tirely different world from that left behind in New England a few 

 days previously. In the strait Avliere the stations had just been taken 

 three small bergs had been sighted, and stranded near Battle Harbor 

 were two more. The dark rainy weather marred their whiteness, 

 but brought out strongly their tints of blue and green. This day's 

 bergs constituted the first specimens of glacial ice ever beheld by the 

 majority of the crew. The water in the harbor was surprisingly 

 transparent. Despite the dullness of the day, details of the rocky 

 bottom and sides of the little cleft of a harbor could be observed in 

 many places as the Marion nosed about slowly between the two roAvs 

 of small Avharves. 



Ashore, the rounded rocky hills were covered wherever there was 

 an}^ soil with a rank, soggy growth of grass, moss, and floAvers. 

 Many of the latter were strange to our southern eyes. All our re- 

 maining doubts about being on the edge of the Arctic Avere quickly 

 dispelled by the sight of the port's tiny houses and the fish-drying 

 stages, about Avhich Avere Avalking the fishermen and the Eskimo dogs 

 of the little toAvn. At 8.50 p. m. the Mariotrs business had been 

 completed and Ave stood out to sea to head nortliAvard into the fog and 

 the rain. 



The morning of July 20 brought good visibility. A fcAv bergs were 

 sighted off the coast in the Labrador current and over 20 Avere seen 

 grounded along the rocky shore. A nortliAvest gale piped up just 

 l3efore noon, so the deeply loaded Marion Avas run into sheltered 

 Avaters and anchored off Domino Harbor, Labrador. Only tAvo per- 

 sons Avere found at this place — a father and son from XcAvfoundland 

 Avho Avere spending the summer there catching cod. The surround- 

 ings Avere uniuA^iting and bleak, for the ground Avas rockier and the 

 A^egetation less \dgorous than at Battle Harbor, only TO miles farther 

 south. 



In the afternoon the Marion Avas SAvung in Domino Rini to deter- 

 mine the deA^ations of the radiocompass, the local commercial radio 

 station transmitting AvheneA'er test bearings Avere required. At 4.50 

 p. m.. as it Avas still oAcrcast and A^ery A\'indy, the MaHon Avas 

 anchored at Spotted Island Harl)or. This toAvn Avas considerably 

 more populous than Domino Harbor, lying across the run from it. 

 There Avas a hospital of the International (jrenfell Association at the 

 ncAv village. The hospital i)eople and the natives Avere most cordial 

 throughout the ship's -t5-hour stay. It Avas here that Ave had our 

 first taste of seal meat, the consensus of opinion being that it Avas A^ery 

 good if properly cooked. 



