84 EGGERS OF LABRADOR. 



how the filthy lubbers stretch out their arms and yawn ; you shrink back, 

 for verily " that throat might frighten a shark." 



But the master, soon recollecting that so many eggs are worth a dol- 

 lar or a crown, casts his eye towards the rock, marks the day in his memory, 

 and gives orders to depart. The light breeze enables them to reach ano- 

 ther harbour a few miles distant, one which, like the last, lies concealed 

 from the ocean by some other rocky isle. Arrived there, they re-act the 

 scene of yesterday, crushing every egg they can find. For a week each 

 night is passed in drunkenness and brawls, until, having reached the last 

 breeding place on the coast, they return, touch at every isle in succession, 

 shoot as many birds as they need, collect the fresh eggs, and lay in a 

 cargo. At every step each ruffian picks up an egg so beautiful that any 

 man with a feeling heart would pause to consider the motive which could 

 induce him to carry it off. But nothing of this sort occurs to the Egger, 

 who gathers and gathers, until he has swept the rock bare. The dollars 

 alone chink in his sordid mind, and he assiduously plies the trade which 

 no man would ply who had the talents and industry to procure subsist- 

 ence by honourable means. 



With a bark nearly half filled with fresh eggs they proceed to the 

 principal rock, that on which they first landed. But what is their sur- 

 prise when they find others there helping themselves as industriously as 

 they can ! In boiling rage they charge their guns, and ply their oars. 

 Landing on the rock, they run up to the Eggers, who, like themselves, are 

 desperadoes. The first question is a discharge of musketry, the answer 

 another. Now, man to man, they fight like tigers. One is carried to his 

 boat with a fractured skull, another limps with a shot in his leg, and a 

 third feels how many of his teeth have been driven through the hole in 

 his cheek. At last, however, the quarrel is settled ; the booty is to be 

 equally divided ; and now see them all drinking together. Oaths and 

 curses and filthy jokes are all that you hear ; but see, stuffed with food, 

 and reeling with drink, down they drop one by one ; groans and execra- 

 tions from the wounded mingle with the snorings of the heavy sleepers. 

 There let the brutes lie. 



Again it is dawn, but no one stirs. The sun is high ; one by one 

 they open their heavy eyes, stretch their limbs, yawn, and raise themselves 

 from the deck. But see, here comes a goodly company. A hundred 

 honest fishermen, who for months past have fed on salt meat, have felt a 



