CHAPTER V. 



ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 



Four o'clock Saturday morning, July 7th, i860, in 

 the Strait of Belle Isle, and that huge rampart of rock, 

 these few icebergs stranded here and there, this occa- 

 sional lump of floe-ice floating down with the tide, these 

 outlandish puffins, and large flocks of eider-ducks skim- 

 ming the surface or flying high overheard, tell us that, 

 after nine days of sailing, we are sighting the Labrador 

 coast. 



Here codfish grow largest and most numerous; so 

 twenty thousand fishermen from the British colonies and 

 about five thousand Yankees migrate hither every sum- 

 mer for the cod, herring, and salmon that swarm in 

 these icy waters. Here, in the spring of the year, num- 

 bers of hardy Newfoundland sealers risk their lives in the 

 ice just breaking up ; while all the year round there are 

 estimated to be five thousand Esquimaux, Micmacs, 

 Englishmen, Frenchmen, Jerseymen, and half-breeds, 

 who live, thanks to the codfish, on these favored shores. 

 Here people are born, live, and die, who have never 

 seen a horse, cow, sheep, or cat, or a civilized dog. 

 Wild Esquimaux dogs, savage, wolfish creatures, are the 

 only beasts of burden. 



The animals and birds are half arctic and half temper- 

 ate. Sweet, dwarfish, arctic flowers here nestle in beds 

 of reindeer-moss, while our Alpine flora one may gather 



82 



