IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



CHAPTER I 



Audubon's Labrador trip 



FOR many years John James Audubon, the 

 great ornithologist, had contemplated a trip 

 to Labrador in order to study and paint the birds 

 of that coast for his monumental work "The 

 Birds of America." On the 6th of June, 1833, he 

 sailed from Eastport, Maine, in the schooner 

 Ripley, of one hundred and six tons burden, com- 

 manded by Captain Emery. His party consisted 

 of five young and vigorous men, all between 

 eighteen and twenty-one years of age, who were 

 looking forward to all the pleasures, hardships, 

 and adventures of the. trip, and to doing loyal 

 work for their leader in procuring specimens of 

 birds and eggs as well as other objects of natural 

 history. Of these, George C. Shattuck, of Bos- 

 ton, was afterwards a well-known physician, 

 under whom many years later it was my priv- 

 ilege to serve as house officer at the Massachu- 



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