SOME LABRADOR RIVERS 
two hundred yards, by another, a straight 
path by the telegraph wires, the river lower 
down is reached at a distance of over a mile, 
while along the beach to the mouth of the 
river the distance is about three-fourths of a 
mile. The continual wearing back of the right 
bank by the impact of the river at the summit 
of the curve threatens the little settlement 
between it and the gulf, and it would not be 
difficult to calculate when the river will break 
through at this point, and wash the Honour- 
able Hudson’s Bay Company's Post into the 
sea. 
We were casting our flies for trout one day 
from a sandy beach at the mouth of the Mingan 
River when two competitors appeared in the 
shape of a pair of seals, —loups marines,— 
wolves of the sea the habitants call them, and 
indeed they are nearly right both from a bio- 
logical and practical point of view. It was a 
pretty sight to watch their gambols, as with 
arched backs they would rush above the sur- 
face, and then disappear, or would throw them- 
selves half out of water with a mighty splash 
in the excitement and enjoyment of the chase. 
I tried hard to see the trout in their jaws, but 
227 
