222 A summer's CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR, 



Strait ; one of them broke to pieces during the nighty 

 and we afterwards saw the fragments floating upon the 

 water some miles inshore. We lay all night becalmed 

 six or seven miles from shore, drifting slowly down the 

 Strait with the Labrador current ; before night I dredged 

 in from forty to fifty fathoms on a hard, pebbly bottom^ 

 bringing up besides the common red seaweed (Ptilota) 

 only a shrimp or two. 



Towards noon of the following day a steady easterly- 

 breeze carried us down the Strait, and we lay to in the 

 fog all night, until after breakfast of the 24th it lifted 

 somewhat and we found ourselves near Whale Island, 

 three miles west of Whiteley's, and by eleven had for- 

 tunately worked into the harbor of Salmon Bay off John 

 Goddard's house near Caribou Island. We went to Rev. 

 Mr. Carpenter's mission house for our letters, and were 

 glad enough to accept his hospitality that night, not only 

 as a pleasant change from sleeping in a bunk, but to 

 renew an agreeable acquaintance. 



I collected more Quaternary fossils from the beach,^ 

 though it rained and blew hard all day. We learned 

 that the weather here had been pleasanter than "to the 

 nor'ard," and that though the cod fishery had been " bad,"^ 

 it was now beginning to " look up." The stormy season 

 was now about to set in, and it was high time that such 

 craft as ours should leave the coast. No sail-boats can 

 be used here with safety after the middle of September, 

 the autumn winds are so gusty, with calms and sudden 

 flaws. Only the small sails of the Newfoundland vessels 

 and their large crews enable them to coast along this 

 region after that date. 



On the 25th we fairly got under way for home. 



