162 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
seemed when compared with the fishing boats in 
which we had at first prepared to make the voyage! 
Investigation below, however, did not seem to offer 
prospects of undisturbed repose, and reaching Bryon 
late in the afternoon we decided to go ashore and 
apply to the island’s owner for a night’s lodging. 
Bryon Island, with its several thousand acres of 
stunted spruce and balsam forests, its rolling pasture 
lands and grazing cows and sheep, its precipitous 
red sandstone cliffs rising to a height of two hundred 
feet from the sea and furnishing a home for a few 
Murres and Puffins, is the property of one man, who 
purchased it from the Government for a nominal 
sum. A lobster cannery furnishes employment for 
twoscore or more itinerant fishermen and laborers, 
who after the lobstering season ends in July remain 
for the mackerel fishing. When they have departed 
the population of Bryon is reduced to about half a 
dozen families, over whom the owner reigns su- 
preme. 
We landed at the cannery and wended our way 
over a path through the stunted forests, which at 
the end of a mile or more led us to the monarch’s 
home—a small frame house adjoining large barns. 
The ruler of Bryon proved to be absent in the 
Magdalens, but his wife made us both welcome and 
comfortable. We recall with pleasure the night 
passed beneath her roof, and the magnificent view 
of the setting sun from Bryon’s red cliffs. 
We awoke in the clouds, gulf clouds, which so 
often in swift-spreading banks envelop both sea 
and land in this region. It was ten o’clock before 
the sun could force its way through them, and when 
