VISIT TO THE GULNARE. 267 



is considered a good one Wolves and black bears abound, but 

 no deer nor caraboos are seen, and not a bird of any kind 

 except wild geese and brants about the lakes, where they 

 breed. When the journey is undertaken in winter, they go on 

 snow shoes, without canoes. Fur animals are scarce, but a few 

 beayers and otters, martins and sables, are caught, and some 

 foxes and lynxes, while their numbers yearly diminish. Thus 

 the Fur Company may be called the exterminating medium of 

 these wild and almost uninhabitable regions, which cupidity or 

 the love of money alone would induce man to venture into. 

 Where can I now go and find nature undisturbed ? 



" June 25. Drawing all day until five o'clock, when I went to 

 dine on board the Grulnare ; quite a bore to shave and dress in 

 Labrador. The company consisted of the captain, doctor, and 

 three other officers ; we had a good sea dinner, du cot and du 

 mouton, de bon vin, et du tabac, excellent, of which I took a 

 pinch or two. Conversation turned on botany, politics, and the 

 Established Church of England, and ranged away to hatching 

 eggs by steam. I saw the maps the officers are making of the 

 coast, and was struck with the great accuracy of the shape of 

 our perfect harbour. I returned to our vessel at ten in the 

 evening ; the weather is warm, and the mosquitoes abundant 

 and hungry. 



" Jwne 26. We have now been waiting five days for a fair 

 wind to take us eastward in our explorations. , The waters of all 

 the streams we have seen are of a rusty colour, probably derived 

 from the decomposing mosses which form the soil on the rocks. 

 The rivers seem to be the drain from swamps fed by rain and 

 melting snow ; the soil in the low grounds is of quite a peaty 

 nature. The freshets take down sand and gravel from the de- 

 composed rocks, and form bars at the mouths of all the rivers. 

 Below the mouth of each stream is the best fishing ground for 

 cod fish. They accumulate there to feed on the fry which 

 run into the rivers to deposit their spawn, and which they 

 follow again to sea, when they return to strike out into deep 

 water. 



"It is quite remarkable how shy the agents of the Fur 

 Company here are of strangers. They refused to sell me a 

 salmon ; and one of them told me he would be discharged if it 



