386 AUDUBON 



birds just hatched, and three eggs, which the young inside 

 had just cracked. The parent birds were anxious about 

 their newly born ones, and flew close to us. The little 

 ones were pure white, soft and downy. We found also 

 three young of the Charadrius semipalmatus, ^ and several 

 old ones; these birds breed on the margin of a small 

 lake among the low grasses. Traces have been seen of 

 Hares or Rabbits, and one island is perforated throughout 

 its shallow substratum of moss by a species of Rat, but in 

 such burrows search for them is vain. The " Gulnare " 

 came in this evening; our captain brought her in as 

 pilot. We have had an almost complete eclipse of the 

 moon this evening at half-past seven. The air very 

 chilly. 



July 2. A beautiful day for Labrador. Drew another 

 M. arcticus. Went on shore, and was most pleased with 

 what I saw. The country, so wild and grand, is of itself 

 enough to interest any one in its wonderful dreariness. 

 Its mossy, gray-clothed rocks, heaped and thrown together 

 as if by chance, in the most fantastical groups imagina- 

 ble, huge masses hanging on minor ones as if about to 

 roll themselves down from their doubtful-looking situa- 

 tions, into the depths of the sea beneath. Bays without 

 end, sprinkled with rocky islands of all shapes and sizes, 

 where in every fissure a Guillemot, a Cormorant, or 

 some other wild bird retreats to secure its egg, and 

 raise its young, or save itself from the hunter's pursuit. 

 The peculiar cast of the sky, which never seems to be cer- 

 tain, butterflies flitting over snow-banks, probing beauti- 

 ful dwarf flowerets of many hues pushing their tender 

 stems from the thick bed of moss which everywhere cov- 

 ers the granite rocks. Then the morasses, wherein you 

 plunge up to your knees, or the walking over the stub- 

 born, dwarfish shrubbery, making one think that as he 

 goes he treads down the forests of Labrador. The unex- 



1 American Ring Plover, now known as jE^alitis semipalmata. — E. C. 



