A LABRADOR SPRING 
these eiders! The nesting birds, particularly 
the females, are easily shot, and at Piashte-bai 
I saw several of their carcasses spitted and 
being dried and smoked in front of an Indian 
wigwam. 
We met with several similar camping parties 
of Indians, although we were rather too early 
in the season to find many such, but at Mingan 
and at the Natashquan River we saw large 
numbers of the Montagnais. At the latter 
place they have a small village of wooden 
houses on the right bank of the mouth of the 
Great Natashquan River some four miles from 
the white settlement at the Little Natashquan. 
Having spent the winter in the interior, hunting 
and trapping, they had arrived here in May, and 
it happened on May 31st, the day we tramped 
over through the dunes and along the beach 
from Natashquan, that we arrived just as the 
Indians were embarking for Musquarro. This 
point, some fifteen miles farther down the 
coast, is an Indian mission, presided over by 
a Roman Catholic priest, who goes there once a 
year at this season for the purpose of celebrating 
the various rites of the church — feasts and 
fasts, baptisms, marriages and funeral services 
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