THE LABRADOR JOURNAL 383 



her anchorage. The sea was so high in consequence of 

 the late gales that we all took to our berths, and I am 

 only now able to write. 



June 29. At three this morning we were off the land 

 about fifteen miles, and about fifty from American Har- 

 bor. Wind favorable, but light; at about ten it fresh- 

 ened. We neared the shore, but as before our would-be 

 pilot could not recognize the land, and our captain had 

 to search for the harbor where we now are, himself. We 

 passed near an island covered with Foolish Guillemots, 

 and came to, for the purpose of landing; we did so 

 through a heavy surf, and found two eggers just landed, 

 and running over the rocks for eggs. We did the same, 

 and soon collected about a hundred. These men told me 

 they visited every island in the vicinity every day, and 

 that, in consequence they had fresh eggs every day. They 

 had collected eight hundred dozen, and expect to get two 

 thousand dozen. The number of broken eggs created a 

 fetid smell on this island, scarcely to be borne. The L. 

 marinus were here in hundreds, and destroying the eggs of 

 the Guillemots by thousands. From this island we went 

 to another, and there found the Mormon arcticus ' breed- 

 ing in great numbers. We caught many in their burrows, 

 killed some, and collected some of the eggs. On this 

 island their burrows were dug in the light black loam 

 formed of decayed moss, three to six feet deep, yet not 

 more than about a foot under the surface. The burrows 

 ran in all directions, and in some instances connected ; 

 the end of the burrow is rounded, and there is the pure 

 white egg. Those caught at the holes bit most furiously 

 and scratched shockingly with the inner claw, making a 

 mournful noise all the time. The whole island was per- 

 forated with their burrows. No young were yet hatched, 

 and the eggers do not collect these eggs, finding them 

 indifferent. They say the same of the eggs of the Alca 



1 The Common Puffin, now called Fratercula arctica. — E. C. 



