m AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



shores. He notes on June 21 : " I found many 

 small flowers open this day, where none ap- 

 peared last evening. All vegetable life here is 

 of the pygmy order, and so ephemeral that it 

 shoots out of the tangled mass of ages, blooms, 

 fructifies, and dies, in a few weeks." 



He came in contact with the nefarious trade 

 of the "egger." "We ascertained to-day that 

 a party of four men from Halifax took last 

 spring nearly forty thousand eggs, which they 

 sold at Halifax and other towns at twenty- 

 five cents per dozen, making over $800; 

 this was done in about two months. Last 

 year upward of twenty sail were engaged in 

 'egging'; so some idea may be formed of the 

 birds that are destroyed in this rascally way." 



On June 22, Audubon visited the little set- 

 tlement at the mouth of the Great Natash- 

 quan River, the establishment of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, and described the Montagnais 

 Indians there. He says: "So shy of strangers 

 are the agents of the Fur and Fish Company 

 that they will evade all questions respecting 

 the interior of the country, and indeed will 

 willingly tell you such untruths as at once 

 disgust and shock you. All this through the 

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