THE LABRADOR JOURNAL 387 



pected Bunting, or perhaps Sylvia, which perchance, and 

 indeed as if by chance alone, you now and then see flying 

 before you, or hear singing from the creeping plants on 

 the ground. The beautiful fresh-water lakes, on the 

 rugged crests of greatly elevated islands, wherein the Red 

 and Black-necked Divers swim as proudly as swans do in 

 other latitudes, and where the fish appear to have been 

 cast as strayed beings from the surplus food of the ocean. 

 All — all is wonderfully grand, wild — aye, and terrific. 

 And yet how beautiful it is now, when one sees the wild 

 bee, moving from one flower to another in search of food, 

 which doubtless is as sweet to it, as the essence of the 

 magnolia is to those of favored Louisiana. The little 

 Ring Plover rearing its delicate and tender young, the 

 Eider Duck swimming man-of-war-like amid her floating 

 brood, like the guardship of a most valuable convoy; the 

 White-crowned Bunting's sonorous note reaching the ear 

 ever and anon ; the crowds of sea-birds in search of places 

 wherein to repose or to feed — how beautiful is all this in 

 this wonderful rocky desert at this season, the beginning 

 of July, compared with the horrid blasts of winter which 

 here predominate by the will of God, when every rock is 

 rendered smooth with snows so deep that every step the 

 traveller takes is as if entering into his grave ; for even 

 should he escape an avalanche, his eye dreads to search 

 the horizon, for full well does he know that snow — snow 

 — is all that can be seen. I watched the Ring Plover for 

 some time; the parents were so intent on saving their 

 young that they both lay on the rocks as if shot, quiver- 

 ing their wings and dragging their bodies as if quite 

 disabled. We left them and their young to the care of 

 the Creator. I would not have shot one of the old ones, 

 or taken one of the young for any consideration, and I 

 was glad my young men were as forbearing. The L. 

 marinus is extremely abundant here; they are forever har- 

 assing every other bird, sucking their eggs, and devouring 



