298 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



partly Canadian and partly English. The women all wear 

 cotton caps covering their ears. The passage to and from our 

 vessel to the shore was the roughest I ever made in an open 

 boat, and we were completely soaked by the waves which dashed 

 over us. 



" August 15. We have had a beautiful day. This morning some 

 Indians came alongside of our vessel with half a reindeer, a 

 caraboo, and a hare of a species I had never seen before. We gave 

 them twenty-one pounds of pork for forty-four pounds of venison, 

 thirty-three pounds of bread for the caraboo, and a quarter of a 

 dollar for the hare. The Indians showed much cleverness in 

 striking the bargain. I spent part of the day drawing, and then 

 visited the wigwams of the Indians across the bay. We found 

 them, as I expected, aU lying down pell-mell in their wigwams, 

 and a strong mixture of blood was perceptible in their skins, 

 shape, and deportment: some were almost white, and sorry I 

 am to say, that the nearer ■ they were to our nobler race the 

 filthier and the lazier they were. The women and children 

 were particularly disgusting in this respect. Some of the 

 women were making baskets, and others came in from collecting 

 a fruit called here the baked apple (Rulus chammnrous), and 

 when burnt a Kttle it tastes exactly like a roasted apple. The 

 children were catching lobsters and eels, of which there are a 

 great many in the bay, as there are in all the bays of the island, 

 whilst at Labrador this shell-fish is very rare. The young 

 Indians found them by wading to their knees in eel grass. 



"We bargained with two of the hunters to go with our 

 young men into the interior to hunt for caraboos, hares, and 

 partridges, which they agreed to do for a dollar a day. The 

 Indians cook lobsters by roasting them in a pile of brushwood, 

 and eat them without any salt or other condiment. The 

 caraboos are at this date in ' velvet,' their sMns are now light 

 grey, and the flesh poor but tender. The average weight of 

 this animal, when in good condition, is four hundred pounds. 

 In the early part of March they leave the hilly grounds, where 

 no moss or any other food can be obtained, and resort to the 

 shores of the sea to feed on kelp and other sea grasses cut up 

 by the ice and cast up by the waves along the shore. Groups 

 of several hundreds may be seen at one time thus feeding : their 



