280 LIFE OF AUDUBON- 



tumips, potatoes, and other vegetables. He appeared to be 

 lord of all these parts, and quite contented with his lot. He 

 told me that his profits last year amounted to three thousand 

 dollars. He does not trade with the Indians, of whom we saw 

 about twenty of the Mountaineer tribe, and he has white men- 

 servants. His seal-oil tubs were full, and he was then engaged 

 in loading a schooner bound to Quebec. He complained of the 

 American fishermen, and said they often acted as badly as 

 pirates towards the Indians, the white settlers, and the eggers, 

 all of whom have more than once retaliated, when bloody com- 

 bats have followed. He assured me that he had seen a fisher- 

 man's crew kill thousands of guillemots in a day, pluck off their 

 feathers, and throw their bodies into the sea. 



"Mr. Robertson also told nie that, during mild winters, his 

 little harbour is covered with thousands of white gulls, and that 

 they all leave on the approach of spring. The travelling here 

 is altogether over -the ice, which is covered with snow, and in 

 sledges drawn by Esquimaux dogs, of which this man keeps a 

 famous pack. He often goes to Bras d'Or, seventy-five 

 miles distant, with his wife and children on one sledge, drawn 

 by ten dogs. Scarcely any travelling is done on land, the 

 country is so precipitous and broken. Fifteen miles north of 

 here he says there is a lake, represented by the Indians as four 

 hundred miles long and one hundred broad, and that this sea- 

 like lake is at times as rough as the ocean in a storm. It 

 abounds with fish, and some water-birds resort there, and breed 

 by millions along its margin. We have had a fine day, but 

 Mr. E. says that the summer has been unusually tempestuous. 

 The earaboo flies drove our hunters on board to-day, and they 

 looked as bloody as if they had actually had a gouging fight 

 with some rough Kentuckians. Here we found on this wonder- 

 ful wild coast some newspapers from the United States, and 

 received the latest intelligence from Boston to be had at 

 Labrador." 



July 24 and 25 were engaged iu hunting birds and drawing, 

 and contain much valuable information on ornithology, which 

 is given in the " Birds of America." 



" July 26. We left our anchorage, and sailed with a fair wind 

 to visit the Chevalier's settlement, called Bonne Esperance, 



