FEATHER INDUSTRIES 187 



of eider and other down-bearing sea-ducks existed 

 along the northeastern coast of North America. 

 So numerous were the birds that they drifted in 

 enormous "rafts," some a hundred acres in extent 

 with several thousand ducks crowded into an acre, 

 not far from the coast of Labrador, which was 

 their home. And during the months of July and 

 August they drifted helplessly, quite unable to fly. 

 These months were their molting season. Unlike 

 most other birds, ducks molt aU their flight feath- 

 ers at once, and thus can escape from their ene- 

 mies only by the speed of their swimming. 



Wonderful tales were brought back to the colo- 

 nies by whalers and sealers of these helpless 

 "rafts" and the ease by which the birds could 

 be taken. The northern waters were reported 

 a-s being so strewn with discarded feathers that 

 the contents of all the feather-beds in the world 

 might have been scattered there. The ducks were 

 powerless to escape, and their crippled condition 

 invited attack. 



It is not surprising, then, that the American 

 colonists took quick advantage of the opportunity 

 to reline their bed-sacks. Massachusetts became 

 the center of a young but thriving feather indus- 

 try. Enterprising merchants chartered ships to 

 send north after the drifting multitudes. Dozens 

 of vessels spent each summer cruising off the 

 Labrador coast. 



"Feather" voyages proved profitable undertak- 



