274 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



" July 18. After breakfast, all hands except the cook left the 

 Ripley, in three boats, to visit the main shore, about five miles 

 off. The fog was thiclv, but the wind promised fair weather, 

 and soon fulfilled its promise. Directly after landing our party 

 found a large extent of marsh land, the first we have seen in 

 this country ; the soil was wet, our feet sank in it, and walking 

 was tiresome. We also crossed a large savannah of many miles 

 in extent. Its mosses were so wet and spongy, that I never in 

 my life before experienced so much difficulty in travelling. In 

 many places the soil appeared to wave and bend under us like 

 old ice in the spring of the year, and we expected at each step 

 to break through the surface, and sink into the mire below. In 

 the middle of this quagmire we met with a fine small grove of 

 good-sized white birch trees, and a few pines full forty feet high, 

 quite a novelty in this locality. 



" From the top of a high rock I obtained a good view of the 

 most extensive and dreary wilderness I ever beheld. It chilled 

 the heart to gaze on these barrens of Labrador. Indeed I now 

 dread every change of harbour, so horridly rugged and dangerous 

 is the whole coast and country to the eye, and to the experienced 

 man either of the sea or the land. Mosquitoes, many species of 

 horse-flies, small bees, and black gnats fill the air. The frogs 

 croaked, and yet the thermometer was not above 55°. This is 

 one of the real wonders of this extraordinary country. The 

 parties in the boats, hunting all day, brought back but nineteen 

 birds, and we all concluded that no one man could provide food 

 for himself hei-e from tlie land alone. 



" July 19. Cold, wet, blowing, and too much motion of the 

 vessel for drawing. In the evening it cleared up a little, and I 

 went ashore, and visited the hut of a seal-fisher. We climbed 

 over one rocky precipice and fissure after another, holding on to 

 the moss with both hands and feet, for about a mDe, when we 

 came to the deserted hut of a Labrador seal-catcher. It looked 

 snug outside, and we walked in ; it was floored with short slabs, 

 all very well greased with seal oil. A fire-oven without a pipe, 

 a salt-box hung to a wooden peg, a three-legged stool for a 

 table, and wooden box for a bedstead, were all its furniture. 

 An old flour-barrel, containing some hundreds of seine floats, 

 and an old seal seine, comprised the assets of goods and chattels. 



