258 LTPB OF AUDUBON. 



of the same character, and we saw but few land birds-r-one 

 pigeon, a few hawks, and smaller birds. The wild geese, eider- 

 ducks, loons, and many other birds breed here. 



"June 19. The boats went off to neighbouring islands in 

 search of birds and eggs, and I remained all day on board 

 drawing. Eggers from Halifax had robbed nearly all the eggs. 



" The eider-ducks build their nests under the scraggy boughs 

 of the fir-trees, which here grow only a few inches aboye the 

 ground. The nests are scraped a few inches deep in the rotten 

 moss which makes the soil, and the boughs have to be raised 

 to find the nests. The eggs are deposited in down, and covered 

 with down, and keep warm a long time in absence of the duck. 

 They commonly lay six eggs. 



"June 20. The vessel rolls at her anchorage, and I have 

 drawn as well as I could. Our party has gone up the Natasquan 

 in search of adventures and birds. It seems strange to me 

 that in this wonderfully wild country all the wild birds should 

 be so shy. 



"Jvme 21. To-day I went four miles to the falls of the 

 little Natasquan Kiver. The river is small, its water dark and 

 irony, and its shores impenetrable woods, except here and there 

 a small interval overgrown with a wiry grass, unfit for cattle, 

 and of no use if it were, for there are no cattle here. We saw 

 several nets in the river for catching salmon ; they are stretched 

 across the river, and the fish entangle their fins in trying to pass 

 them, and cannot get away. . We visited the huts of the 

 Canadian fishermen of the Hudson Bay Company. They are 

 clothed and fed, and receive eighty dollars a year besides, for 

 their services. They have a cow, an ox, and one acre of potatoes 

 planted. They report seven feet of snow in winter, and that 

 only one-third as many salmon are taken now as ten years ago ; 

 one hundred barrels now is regarded as a fair season. This 

 river is twelve miles long, has three rapids, is broad, swift, and 

 shallow, and discharges a quantity of fine gravelly sand, 



" June 22. Drew all day. Thermometer 60° at twelve. 

 We are so far north that we have scarcely any darkness at night. 

 Our party visited some large ponds on a neighbouring island ; 

 but they had neither fish, shells, nor grass about them ; the 

 shore a reddish sand : saw only a few toads, and those pale- 



