l62 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



perils of this coast and of semi-arctic navigation. We 

 puslied on cautiously and too slowly for the impatient 

 company aboard, l)ut we all reached home safely, and 

 ran into no great danger. 



Within two hours after we had dropped our anchor a 

 fleet of thirty-seven vessels of all descriptions — top-.sail, 

 fore-and-aft, and three-masted schooners, brigs and brig- 

 antines, and hermaphrodite craft — were at anchor in a 

 line; they came in one after the other in single file, all 

 having been headed off by the ice as we had been ; and as 

 they approached us, we, or rather our goodly vessel, was 

 the recipient of admiring looks and complimentary ejac- 

 ulations in Newfoundland dialect, the amount of room 

 on deck and the cleanliness of our craft being the par- 

 ticular points of remark : and there was somewhat of a 

 contrast, which appealed feelingly to our nostrils when 

 we returned their calls. In the hold of one vessel I was 

 delighted to see the head and flippers of a veritable wal- 

 rus. This was alone needed to complete the experiences 

 of arctic voyaging of the past three weeks. They found 

 the creature, a young one twelve feet long with tusks 

 four inches in length, about fifty miles from shore near 

 the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle ; it was found 

 dead, having been harpooned, and had evidently floated 

 down in the floe-ice from higher latitudes. 



An interesting feature of the day's sail was the raised 

 beaches which marked the former level of the ocean. 

 Twelve very distinct ones were seen from the vessel 

 while on her course. At Spotted Island were two low 

 but very regular beaches, perhaps forty feet high. On a 

 small islet to the north, between two trap hills, was a 

 beach which extended up to a height of perhaps from 



