394 AUDUBON 



some stupendous rock, and the gale continues as if it would 

 never stop. On rambling about the shores of the numer- 

 ous bays and inlets of this coast, you cannot but observe 

 immense beds of round stone of all sizes, some of very large 

 dimensions rolled side by side and piled one upon another 

 many deep, cast there by some great force of nature. I 

 have seen many such places, and never without astonish- 

 ment and awe. If those great boulders are brought from 

 the bottom of the sea, and cast hundreds of yards on 

 shore, this will give some idea of what a gale on the coast 

 of Labrador can be, and what the force of the waves. I 

 tried to finish my drawing of the Loon, but in vain; I 

 covered my paper to protect it from the rain, with the 

 exception only of the few inches where I wished to work, 

 and yet that small space was not spared by the drops that 

 fell from the rigging on my table ; there is no window, and 

 the only light is admitted through hatches. 



July 11. The gale, or hurricane, or whatever else the 

 weather of yesterday was, subsided about midnight, and at 

 sunrise this morning it was quite calm, and the horizon 

 fiery red. It soon became cloudy, and the wind has been 

 all round the compass. I wished to go a hundred miles 

 farther north, but the captain says I must be contented 

 here, so I shall proceed with my drawings. I began a Cor- 

 morant and two young, having sent John and Lincoln for 

 them before three this morning ; and they procured them in 

 less than half an hour. Many of the young are nearly as 

 large as their parents, and yet have scarcely a feather, but 

 are covered with woolly down, of a sootj'- black. The ex- 

 cursions brought in nothing new. The Shore Lark has 

 become abundant, but the nest remains still unknown. A 

 tail feather of the Red-tailed Hawk, young, was found ; 

 therefore that species exists here. We are the more 

 surprised that not a Hawk nor an Owl is seen, as 

 we find hundreds of sea-birds devoured, the wings only 

 remaining. 



