208 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



my butterfly-net and covered them with grass ; on my 

 way past the chapel I came plump upon a wedding party 

 going away from the doors. The bride led the party^ 

 clad in her old-time costume, with the addition of a calico 

 skirt; at the distance of a few paces followed the groom, 

 while the friends straggled along behind. Without being 

 asked too curious questions I carried my precious freight 

 aboard, glad — to use a sepulchral simile — to kill two 

 birds with one stone, i.e. to secure the last remains of 

 an old-time Eskimo couple and to see a young and living 

 couple so recently united. 



At Hopedale we understood the oldest person, the 

 patriarch of the colony, to be a woman of seventy years : 

 we saw her — a picture of ugliness which still haunts 

 our memory. There were three Eskimos who were sixty 

 years old. A man becomes prematurely old when forty- 

 five years of age, as the hunters are by that time worn 

 out by the hardships of the autumnal seal fishery. 



