AUDUBON'S LABRADOR TRIP 



week's delay due to easterly winds with rain 

 and fog, a favorable westerly breeze sprang 

 up, the explorers set sail, and the next morn- 

 ing found themselves near islands on which 

 murres, puffins, razor-billed auks, and cormo- 

 rants were breeding by thousands. These is- 

 lands are stated to be about fifty miles from 

 Natashquan and were probably in the neigh- 

 borhood of Old Romaine. From there the 

 Ripley continued down the coast, and toward 

 the end of the day came to anchor in the har- 

 bor of Wapitagun. Audubon says, "but as 

 before our would-be pilot could not recognize 

 the land," and they found difficulty in enter- 

 ing the harbor "on account of our pilot being 

 an ignorant ass; twice did we see rocks under 

 our vessel. The appearance of the country 

 around is quite different from that near Ameri- 

 can Harbor ; nothing in view here, as far as the 

 eye can reach, but bare, high, rugged rocks, 

 grand, indeed, but not a shrub a foot above 

 the ground. The moss is shorter and more com- 

 pact, the flowers are fewer, and every plant 

 more diminutive. No matter which way you 

 glance, the prospect is cold and forbidding; 

 deep banks of snow appear here and there, 



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