152 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



most lake were, besides spruce, balsam firs and larches, 

 the latter six inches thick ; the Kalmia glauca, or arctic 

 laurel, as it may be called, was just beginning to flower. 



The 6th closed cold and damp : the northeast wind had 

 packed the ice in our harbor thicker than ever, while the 

 thermometer went down to 38° F. The fishermen, how- 

 ever, managed to seine a few cod and herring. 



The morning of the 7th was the coldest we had expe- 

 rienced, as the ice formed around our vessel between the 

 cakes of floe-ice. After a good deal of exertion a -few 

 of us managed, after much tugging and pushing and 

 forcing the ice-cakes apart, to get ashore in a boat ; but 

 we had, on returning, to leave our boat ashore and walk 

 back to the vessel. Here I found, my fingers numbed 

 with the cold, the caterpillar of "^xoh^i^Xj Arctia quenselii 

 on the larch, which also occurs on the Alps, the moun- 

 tains of Norway, and in Greenland and Colorado. It 

 was a truly mimetic or protective form, as on first sight 

 it looked like a bunch of moss so common on these trees. 

 At noon it began to rain, and a regular northeast storm 

 set in. Through the next two days (the 8th and 9th) we 

 were still ice- and wind-bound, with cold, rainy weather. 

 Sunday the loth was a repetition of the three preceding, 

 although part of the day the wind was from, the south- 

 west. The fishermen reported a fight outside of the 

 harbor between a whale and a killer and sword-fish, in 

 whicli the whale got worsted, turning exhausted upon 

 his back. The night ended in rain, which continued 

 through the next morning ; the wind was at first south, 

 then southwest, and at night again returned to its fa- 

 vorite quarter, the northeast, with very cold weather. 

 During the day there were some strange cloud effects, the 



