BRADORE BAY AND PERROQUET ISLAND 



about a mile from us, hauling the poor codfish 

 by thousands ; hundreds of men engaged clean- 

 ing and salting, their low jokes and songs re- 

 sembling those of the Billingsgate gentry." 



A few houses were scattered about the is- 

 lands; there were wharves and storehouses; 

 boats filled with men in oilskins were passing 

 back and forth from the schooners to the shore; 

 children in scanty clothing were playing fisher- 

 men with great sweeps; and the whole place 

 smelled of fish. One could look down through 

 the clear water and see hundreds of dead fish 

 lining the bottom. It did not look inviting for 

 a bath. The Abb6 Huard says of this harbor 

 that it is made " by a group of little islands of a 

 very picturesque character separated by nar- 

 row channels — the whole place designed for a 

 future American Venice." The abb6 has a keen 

 sense of humor, which is continually cropping 

 out in his book on "Labrador et Anticosti," but 

 the most amusing bit, of which, however, he 

 was apparently unconscious, is a footnote on 

 page 435 in which he says: " It appears that the 

 Esquimaux were evangelized in 1763 by Cart- 

 wrigh [sic], Moravian minister"! I am sure 

 Captain Cartwright would laugh in his grave 

 235 



