IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



adviser for this little mission of St. Anne, and 

 his visits are necessarily few. 



The sheets of white foam ran rapidly up 

 the smooth red sides of the whale's head, and 

 ■ slowly sank back again as we drove on before 

 the freshening wind. Foaming reefs appeared 

 on all sides, but the captain knew them all 

 and they had no terrors for us. A couple of 

 fishing-schooners were sheltered close to the 

 head and a half-dozen small houses clung pre- 

 cariously to its sides just above the water's 

 edge. As we passed Nadeau Island, a round 

 rock with a steep cliff, the captain pointed out 

 the house of the man who had put by six thou- 

 sand dollars in the bank, as a result of his life- 

 work in fishing. Dying a bachelor, he had left 

 this money — a fortune in these regions — to 

 his nephew. 



As the wind increased to half a gale we low- 

 ered our jib and, with only a reefed foresail, 

 scudded across the intervening eight miles to 

 Gape Mecattina. It was not exactly "under 

 bare poles," but it came very near to it. Great 

 green seas with white crests rose up behind us 

 as if about to engulf our little schooner and 

 surged along beside us, but the Sea Star, under 



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