530 WILLOW GROUS. 



shy, and flew from one part of the marsh to another. We prociu'ed with 

 great difficulty two, which proved to be barren females. 



To give you an idea of the difficulties we had occasionally to encoun- 

 ter, in our endeavours to procure such birds as breed in that country, it 

 will suffice to say, that one of us was so mired in the flat just mentioned, 

 that it was with extreme difficulty another of us succeeded in extricating 

 him, to the great danger of being himself swamped, in which case we 

 must all have perished, had no aid arrived. We were completely smeared 

 with black mud, and so fatigued, that when we returned, we found it 

 impossible to proceed more than a few yards before we were forced to sit 

 down on the dangerous sward, which at every step shook for a consider- 

 able space around, so that we were obliged to keep at a distance from 

 each other, and move many yards apart, constantly fearing that the least 

 increase of weight would have burst the thin layer that supported us, and 

 sent us in to a depth from which we could not have been extricated. But 

 once out of the bog, we were delighted with the success of our enterprise, 

 and as we refreshed ourselves from our scanty stores, when we had reach- 

 ed the rocky shores of the sea, we laughed heartily at what had happen- 

 ed, although only a few hours before it was considered a most serious ac- 

 cident. 



As I am speaking of fowling in Labrador, allow me to relate an inci- 

 dent connected with the Willow Grous. Among our crew was a sailor, 

 who was somewhat of a Avag. He was a "• man-of-war's-man," and had 

 seen a good deal of service in our navy, an expert sailor, perhaps the best 

 diver I have seen, always willing to work hard, and always full of fun. 

 This sailor and another had the rowing of our gig on an excursion after 

 Grous and other wild birds. Thom.as Lincoln and my son John Wood- 

 HonsE, managed the boat. The gig having landed on the main, the sailors, 

 who had guns, went one way, and the young travellers another. They 

 all returned, as was previously agreed upon, at the same hour, and pro- 

 duced the birds which they had procured. The sailor had none, and was 

 laughed at. While rowing towards the Ripley, we heard the cries of 

 birds as if in the air ; the rowing ceased, but nothing could be seen, and 

 we proceeded. Again the sounds of birds were distinctly heard, but 

 again none could be seen, and what seemed strange was, that they were 

 heard only at each pull of the oars. The young men taxed the tar with 

 producing the noises, as they saw him as if employed in doing so with his 

 mouth ; however, the thing still remained a mystery. Sometime after 



