ARRIVAL AT LABRADOE. 257 



was literally covered with foolish guillemots playing in the very 

 spray under our bow, plunging as if in fun under it, and rising 

 like spirits close under our rudder. The wind was fair, and the 

 land in sight from aloft, and I now look forward to our landing 

 on Labrador as at hand, and my thoughts are filled with ex- 

 pectations of the new knowledge of birds and animals which I 

 hope to acquire there. The Eipley sails well, but now she 

 fairly skipped over the water. The cry of land soon made my 

 heart bound with joy ; and as we approached it we saw what 

 looked like many sails of vessels, but we soon found that they 

 were snow-banks, and the air along the shore was filled with 

 millions of velvet ducks and other aquatic birds, flying in long 

 files a few yards above the water. 



" We saw one vessel at anchor, and the country looked well 

 from the distance ; and as we neared the shore the thermo- 

 meter rose from 44° to 60°, yet the appearance of the snow-drifts 

 was forbidding. The shores appeared to be margined with a 

 broad and handsome sand-beach, and we saw imaginary bears, 

 wolves, and other animals scampering away on the rugged 

 shore. About thirty boats were fishing, and we saw them 

 throwing the fish on deck by thousands. 



" We soon reached the mouth of the Natasquan Eiver, where 

 the Hudson Bay Company have a fishing establishment, and 

 where no American vessel is allowed to come. The shore was 

 filled with bark-covered huts, and some vessels were anchored 

 within the gand-point which forms one side of the entrance to 

 the river. We sailed on four miles further to the American 

 harbour, and came to anchor in a beautiful bay, wholly secure 

 from any winds. 



" And now we are positively at Labrador, lat. 50° and farther 

 north than I ever was before. But what a country ! When 

 we landed and reached the summit we sank nearly up to our 

 knees in mosses of different sorts, producing such a sensation 

 as I never felt before. These mosses in the distance look like 

 hard rocks, but under the foot they feel like a velvet cushion. 

 We rambled about and searched in vain for a foot of square 

 earth ; a poor, rugged, and miserable country ; the trees are 

 wiry and scraggy dwarfs ; and when the land is not rocky it is 

 boggy to a man's waist. All the islands about the harbour were 



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