I04 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



smaller than those of the common cormorant, are whiter 

 and more pointed, and are laid later than those of any- 

 other bird. 



On our return we went by invitation into William's 

 house ; his children were attractive in looks, with fine 

 eyes. This family and a neighboring one were the two 

 leading French Canadian families on the coast. They 

 told us that it was harder to gain a livelihood than here- 

 tofore, the game and fish getting scarcer. Still, one 

 family winter before last shot i loo partridges. William, 

 by the way, told us that there were four varieties of part- 

 ridge : the spruce partridge, and the white or ptarmigan, 

 of which they distinguish the mountain ptarmigan and 

 the river ptarmigan, the latter the rarest ; the fourth kind 

 they call the'pheasant. The partridges were said to be 

 now laying their eggs. William raised last year twenty- 

 five bushels of potatoes, also turnips, while barley, hav- 

 ing three months to grow, ripens on this inhospitable 

 coast. Sheep might be raised ; there were no cows, 

 though to the westward they are kept the year through. 

 We were told that a walrus was killed near St. Augus- 

 tine within twenty-five years, and that two had been seen 

 in this vicinity since then. It will be remembered that 

 the walrus formerly abounded in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, having been rendered extinct by the early fisher- 

 men on the Magdalen Islands. 



We saw an egging vessel at a distance. The " egg- 

 ers " watch their chances to take great quantities of eggs 

 of sea-birds, especially those of the eider-duck and 

 murres. But there are now few who follow this illegal 

 and nefarious occupation. Twenty years ago the busi- 

 ness was at its height, and a schooner would load a cargo 



