IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



The tension or shearing stress set up in the 

 bed-rock by a boulder dragged along beneath 

 the ice, must oftentimes be enormous. . . , 

 The integrity of the rock-surface will hence- 

 forth be endangered because frost can work 

 upon these cracks in the same manner as 

 it works on joint-planes. The actual hollows 

 would thus owe their existence to the post- 

 glacial splitting action of frost, prying up and 

 breaking off prismatic fragments of the rock 

 until these fragments had reached a thickness 

 appropriate to the steep inner face of the lune." 

 From our anchorage in the harbor the two 

 or three houses at the bleak point looked for- 

 lorn and desolate enough; there was nothing 

 lovely or beautiful about them until the set- 

 ting sun disguised their shabbiness and glori- 

 fied the whole landscape. As the sun went 

 down behind low-lying black clouds, the sky in 

 the east was gradually eclipsed by the shadow 

 of the land and became the darkest of blue. 

 This color was well set off by the vivid Vene- 

 tian-red sail of a fishing-boat whose occupants 

 were returning from their day's labors. The 

 sea itself was vinaceous in color with a dull 

 metallic cast. Above the eastern eclipse were 

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