432 AUDUBON 



but drenched to the skin. The wind has now abated, and 

 I hope to draw plants all day. This evening a flock of 

 Terns, twenty or thirty with their young, travelled due 

 south; they were very clamorous and beat against the 

 gale most beautifully. Several Indians came on board 

 and promised to go to-morrow after Hares. 



August 15. We have had a beautiful day; this morning 

 some Indians came alongside ; they had half a Reindeer or 

 Caribou, and a Hare which I had never seen before. We 

 took the forty-four pounds of fresh meat and gave in ex- 

 change twenty-one of pork and thirty-three of ship-biscuit, 

 and paid a quarter of a dollar for the Hare, which plainly 

 shows that these Indians know full well the value of the 

 game which they procure. I spent a portion of the day in 

 adding a plant to my drawing of the Red-necked Diver, after 

 which we all went on shore to the Indians' camp across the 

 bay. We found them, as I expected, all lying down pell- 

 mell in their wigwams. A strong mixture of blood was 

 apparent in their skins, shape, and deportment; some 

 indeed were nearly white, and sorry I am to say that the 

 nearer to our own noble selves, the filthier and lazier they 

 are ; the women and children were particularly disgusting. 

 Some of the former, from whom I purchased some rough 

 baskets, were frightfully so. Other women had been out 

 collecting the fruit called here " baked apple " \Rubus 

 chamcsmorus]. When a little roasted it tastes exactly like 

 baked apple. The children were engaged in catching 

 lobsters and eels, of which there are numbers in all the 

 bays here ; at Labrador, lobsters are rare. The young Indi- 

 ans simply waded out up to their knees, turned the eel grass 

 over, and secured their prey. After much parley, we en- 

 gaged two hunters to go as guides into the interior to pro- 

 cure Caribou and Hares, for which they were to receive a 

 dollar a day each. Our men caught ninety-nine lobsters, 

 all of good size ; the shores truly abound in this valuable 

 shell-fish. The Indians roast them in a fire of brushwood, 



