SHORT AMERICAN TRAMP IN THE FALL OF 1864 Printed by R. & R. Clark FOR EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH. LONDON . . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. CAMBRIDGE . . MACMILLAN AND CO. DUBLIN . . . M'GLASHAN AND GILL. GLASGOW . . JAMES MACLEHOSE. On the 2d of June 1863 a photograph was taken of the Harbour of St. John's. The apparent sea -horizon, distant ten miles or so from the spot, was hidden by a solid raft of pack-ice in which large bergs were fixed ; the narrows and the harbour were full of broken bits. On the beach great rounded blocks were stranded. By drawing perspective lines to the horizon from these, past Fort Waldegrave, dimensions can be measured in the picture, for all photographs are drawn to scale. Many of the stranded blocks equalled the size of the gunners' cottages. The frontispiece is faithfully reduced from the photograph by an able artist, but no copy can express the detail of the sun -picture. On the left is a flake at the foot of Signal-hill. On the top of that hill, which nearly equals the height of the opposite hill on the right of the picture, fresh glacial striae, at a height of 540 feet, point out to sea. On the sky-line of the hill to the right, perched blocks can be made out in the photograph, with a good lens. They are blocks of native rock poised upon glaciated weathered surfaces. They are too minute to be shown in a woodcut, but the camera found them out and copied them, as it did a small berg ten miles off on the horizon. GLACIAL STRIDE COPIED BY RUBBINGS. Skyline of Signal-hill left. Height Bearing (true). 540 feet. 360 270 West to East. West „ N. 85° West Hollow near Quidi Vidi. 180 feet. | West Hill-face beyond Quidi Vidi, behind the coast-range, and in the rock-groove. 360 feet. | K 42° W., and N. 80° W. These last seem to run up-hill w «— n out of the groove. (|1 i fife! 1 Illlii A SHORT AMERICAN TRAMP IN THE FALL OF 1864 THE EDITOR OF 'LIFE IN NORMANDY' EDINBURGH: EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS MDCCCLXV THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED TO THE WANDERER BY ONE OF HIS CLASS. CONTENTS (LIS CHAPTER I Page Introductory .... 1 CHAPTER II. Liverpool to Halifax . . 30 CHAPTER III. Nova Scotia to Newfoundland . . . 42 CHAPTER IV. St. John's to Straits of Belleisle . . . 52 CHAPTER V. The Labrador . . . . .67 CHAPTER VI. The Labrador . . . ,110 CHAPTER VII. Avalon . . . . . .125 CHAPTER VIII. Newfoundland, etc. . . . .145 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. Pack New Brunswick ..... 159 CHAPTER X. The States ...... 176 CHAFrER XL The White Mountains . . . .205 CHAPTER XII. Montreal to Niagara and Buffalo . . 228 CHAPTER XIII. Buffalo to the Watershed . . . 265 CHAPTER XIV. Chicago ...... 276 CHAPTER XV. Chicago to St. Louis . . . .287 CHAPTER XVI. St. Louis to Louisville .... 302 CHAPTER XVII. Louisville to Cave City . . . .341 CHAPTER XVIII. Louisville to Cincinnati .... 363 CHAPTER XIX. Partus <: . . . . . .38 7 CONTENTS. Vll APPENDIX. Page No. I. Climate ..... 399 No. IT. Table of Distances .... 408 No. III. Temperature of Water . . . 410 Index . . . . . .413 AN AMEKICAN TEAMP. CHAPTEE I. INTRODUCTORY. On the fourteenth of June, boys, we got under weigh In the bold Princess Koyal bound for Americay, And fifteen bold sailors made our companee, To the east and the west, and across the salt sea. Oh, we'll go a cruising ; oh, we'll go a cruising ; Oh, we'll go a cruising across the salt sea. Sea Song. Anxious to see a new country, and to test a glacial theory formed and matured in Switzerland, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland, the writer of the following- pages started for a cruise in July 1864. An ice-laden ocean-current now describes a south- west curve from Spitzbergen, lat, 80°, to Cape Farewell in Greenland, lat. 60°. There, in the latitude of the Shetlands, it eddies northwards, and turning south- wards again it coasts Labrador to 52°. Part of it flows south-west through the Straits of Belleisle, near the lati- B 2 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. tude of the Straits of Dover ; the main stream flows southwards outside of Newfoundland, over the banks, and there it crosses the Gulf Stream about 46°. The tail of this arctic current carries icebergs, 100 feet high and a quarter of a mile long, to lat. 36° 10' at least, as the following quotations show : — < On the 27th of April 1829, Captain Couthony passed, in lat. 36° 10' N, long. 39° W. (probably south of the Gulf Stream), an iceberg estimated to be a quar- ter of a mile long and from 80 to 100 feet high. It was much wasted in its upper portion, which was worn and broken into the most fanciful shapes/ ' In 1831, at daylight on the 17th of August, lat. 36° 20' K, long. 67° 45' W., upon the southern edge of the Gulf Stream, he fell in with several small icebergs in such proximity to each other as to leave little doubt of their being fragments of a large one, which, weakened by the high temperature of the surrounding water, had fallen asunder during a strong gale which had prevailed from the south-east.'* The icebergs which float in this great Atlantic stream are portions of glaciers which grow in Greenland at the * Silliman's Journal, vol. xliii. 1842, quoted in a memoir on dangers in the Atlantic ; eleventh edition, p. 1 5. New York, E. and G. W. Blunt, 1849. CAPTAIN COUTHONY S OBSERVATIONS. 3 nearest, and they are often loaded with moraines, that is to say, with large stones and clay. * In September 1822, Captain Couthony saw an ice- berg agronnd on the eastern edge of the grand bank, in lat. 43° 18' N, long. 48° 30' W. Sounding three miles inside of it the depth was found to be 105 fathoms (630 feet.)' 'In the month of August 1827, the same observer, while crossing the banks in lat. 46° 30', long. 48° W., passed within less than a mile of a large iceberg which was stranded in between 80 and 90 fathoms (540 feet) water. He was so near as to perceive distinctly large fragments of rock and quantities of earthy matter im- bedded in the side of the iceberg, and to see from the fore-yards that the water for at least a quarter of a mile round it was full of mud stirred up from the bottom by the violent rolling and crushing of the mass.' * To the memoir above quoted a small chart of the Atlantic is added, on which spots are noted where ice has been seen, and the fact recorded in the ' Nautical Magazine,' Purdy's 'Memoir of the Atlantic,' news- papers, or other publications, chiefly since 1832. It is there shewn that floes, fields, and bergs occur most frequently between long. 44° and 52° W., occasionally eastward of 40°, and westward of 60°. This region is * The mud was probably moraine mud. 4 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. never wholly free of heavy ice, and it is sometimes thickly crowded for great distances between lat. 40° and 50°, and further north. Such facts, picked up in a course of reading, a series of observations made in Europe dur- ing twenty years, a set of experiments, and a train of thought, had led to the belief that an arctic current once flowed S.W. down the Baltic and over the British Isles, and that such currents were amply sufficient to account for many glacial phenomena in Europe and elsewhere. Sea-shells of arctic types occur at great elevations in Western Europe. One bed occurs above 3000 feet on Snowdon* Horizontal glacial striae also occur on the tops and shoulders of isolated hills in the British Isles at all elevations, up to 3000 feet, and their direction is generally N.E. and S.W., or thereby. Shells and high striae tell of sea-water and heavy moving ice, and on them a theory was built. As large islands of ice are now carried by currents to latitudes which cor- respond to Gibraltar in Europe, and to Eichmond and Cairo in North America, similar currents may have carried drift to any spot north of these latitudes, and lower than old sea-margins. If ever America was submerged, and the existing arctic cur- * Times, Sept. 20, 1864. Letter from Mr. Baumgarten. « A conglomerate of shells, and casts of them, with sand and pebbles.' SPOORING. 5 rent then continued its present south-west course, the spoor of it ought to be found along a south-west curve produced from the Straits of Belleisle. So it ap- peared ; but this theory had to be tested. The plan formed to test this ' glacial theory' was first to study the ways of icebergs and the climate, on the coast of Labrador, in British latitudes ; then to follow the spoor overland in North America as high up on hills, and as far south as possible, and to learn facts from the works of others, and from all available sources. Icebergs were seen, and a spoor was followed to St. Louis, on the Mississippi ; there it ended, about lat. 39°. The broad trail was crossed westwards at lat. 44° and 45° ; eastwards about lat. 39° and 41°, and it was fol- lowed northwards to Boston, westwards to Albany, and southwards to New York. It confirmed the opinion formed in Europe. While thus spooring for some thousands of miles, other things were noticed. A badly-kept journal may perhaps interest glacialists and amuse readers who, like the writer, delight in wandering to and fro under some pre- tence or other. The first step in such a trip ought to be an attempt to gain some notion of the general shape of the country, its physical geography and geology, so far as they seem to bear on the subject to be studied. AN AMERICAN TRAMP. American Physical Geography. The following are a few facts noticed, picked up by the way, and gathered from varions sources : — The Atlantic coast of North America is the low shelving edge of a broad slope. It is from 50 to 200 miles wide, and from 300 to 500 feet high at the base of the Alleghanies. These mountains form a chain 1300 miles long. The highest point is Black Dome, North Carolina, 6707 feet. The ridges are generally continuous for long distances, and run from KE. to S.W. They are more broken and worn to the north. Gaps in the White Mountains are about 2000 feet high, and the highest point is Mount Washington, 6288, ac- cording to Guyot* From the low sea-coast, westwards to the mountains, from the head of the Bay of Fundy to the Potomac the slope is generally a rolling plateau covered with drift. It is furrowed in every direction by branching watercourses of small depth, and varied by steps, terraces, and hollows, which, like the coast and mountains, trend KE. and S.W., or thereby, or follow zig-zag contour-lines on hill- sides. Similar steps, ridges, and furrows are repeated under * American Journal of Science, vols. xxxi. and xxxii. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. / water, and two great ocean-currents and strong tides pass up and down along the coast. The waters move N.E. and S.W. The banks off shore are in con- tinual movement. An article on the defences of Cape Fear, about latitude 35°, copied from a southern paper by the New York Herald of November 4, 1864, says : — 1 Along the whole extent of the North Carolina coast the bays, inlets, and harbours are constantly changing : the sands shifting from place to place, filling up an entrance here, and opening another there. Above Hatteras Swash there is not one inlet at the present time at all navigable, while no longer than twenty years ago there were three or four. At this place there is the same change con- stantly going on — the channel moving about from place to place, and the Eip filling in with astonishing rapidity.' According to the memoir above quoted,* two miles of the western end of Sable Island, about latitude 44°, have been washed away since 1828. Large ice-islands have been seen near this spot, and an opinion prevails that the whole island is becoming narrower ; that these changes have been going on since 1811, and that they are certain to continue. About latitude 48° and 54°, the sea, accord- ing to fishermen, is growing shallower on the banks of * Published by E. and G. W. Blunt, 179 Water Street, New York, 1863,'p. 4. 8 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. Newfoundland. In these shallow regions, the bottom consists of mud, sand, coarse sand, gravel, broken shells, and large stones. Ice in all shapes abounds, and the movements of ocean-streams are constant and regular in this region. The sea-coast, from Cape Eace to Cape Harrison in Labrador, is rocky, and it is slowly rising. Numerous rocks and other dangers, which were marked elsewhere on old charts of the Atlantic, have been vainly sought by modern surveyors. These, if they ever ex- isted, may have sunk, or they have been washed away. The coast-line and the sea-bottom are therefore in a state of transition : the bed of the sea is drift arranged by water and by ice, and it is rising so as to become dry land in time. If the Atlantic shore of North America were submerged, currents and tides would flow in hollows, which now contain bays and rivers, and they would cer- tainly work in them as they do now in hollows off shore. The land on the eastern slope consists of mud, sand, gravel, pebbles, and large glaciated boulders packed in layers upon a foundation of solid rock, which is striated in many places ; the land looks like an old sea-bottom. According to theory, every depression and elevation of land would change the course of currents, the run of tides, and the climate on shore. A depression of 100 feet would make Newfoundland PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 9 an archipelago, and join the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Bay of Fundy. A tide of 75 feet, on one side of a low narrow isthmus, would be changed into a tide of 6 feet if the barrier were removed. The cold stream which now pours south-west through the Straits of Belle- isle would then pass through straits in Newfoundland and enter the Bay of Fundy. Nova Scotia would then become a range of low rocky islands, and the cold country of Blue Noses, about lat. 44° and 48°, would be chilled by streams of iced water on both sides, in- stead of one. It seems plain that a change would result from a slight rise of land at this spot; and the principle, if established, may be applied elsewhere. The same depression would sink great part of New Brunswick and a wide zone in the Eastern States ; and the change would chill the climate of the coasts which are now protected from arctic waters by Nova Scotia, at least as far south as Boston. A depression of 100 feet would chill the climate of the Eastern slope of the Alleghanies. A depression of 600 feet would sink most of the land in the British provinces and in the Eastern States. It would fill the valleys of the St. Lawrence, St. John, Hudson, Susquehanna, and Shenandoah, and leave pa- rallel ranges of low islands where parallel ridges now 10 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. cross from New Brunswick into the Northern States, and from Pennsylvania into Virginia, about lat. 39°. One cross sound would be at the foot of Peter's Mountain, near Harrisburg, about lat. 40°, another at the valley of the Hudson, another at the St. John Eiver in New Brunswick. St. John New Brunswick, Eastport, Portland in Maine, Boston, New York, Phila- delphia, Baltimore, Washington, Eichmond, and the highest points on the railways which join these towns, would then be more than fifty fathoms under water. The land looks as if it had been submerged, and the shape of it may indicate the former courses of existing currents, and climates which once prevailed, in conse- quence of the distribution of hot and cold streams. If the depression of 600 feet were general in America, the sea would reach to Chicago, and cover the shores of the great lakes. The central region of North America consists of two great basins — one drained by the St. Law- rence, the other by the Mississippi. A general de- pression of 700 feet would sink the common edge of these two shallow basins in the wide flat prairie near Chicago. The Belleisle stream might then flow into the Gulf of Mexico behind the Alleghanies, and so chill the climate of all that region. 800 feet would sink the common watershed at Fort Wayne, where rivers now PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 11 flow opposite ways within four miles of each other. 1200 feet would sink it at Crestline, and Upper San- dusky, near lat. 41°, in the centre of Ohio ; and at these places stratified water-drift abounds. If the sea were at Crestline, long ranges of islands crossed by sounds would remain, where chains of mountains now extend from New Brunswick into Georgia and Alabama. Great part of Labrador and Canada would also remain a cluster of rocky hills to the north of a wide sea. But the cold arctic south-west current which is now turned eastward by Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and which now carries icebergs 100 feet high to lat. 36° 10' in the Atlantic, would surround Labrador, chill the cold climate of the land which it now chills on one side only, and flow south-west to St. Louis on the Mississippi about lat. 39°. The case sup- posed for Nova Scotia, would be repeated on a larger scale. So far, there is nothing in the shape of the land to stop the flow of an arctic current 700 feet deeper than the Atlantic. The warm equatorial current which now flows westward into the Gulf of Mexico, and turns eastward towards Europe, might, if the sea were at Crestline, flow on towards the north-west beneath the Eocky Mountains, and reach as far as it now does on the coast of Europe and about Iceland and Spitzbergen. 12 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. According to theory, all this would result from a general depression of 700 to 1200 feet in North Ame- rica. Ocean-currents would change their courses, and they would carry their climates to other longitudes, but to the same latitudes * A depression of 2000 or 3000 feet would only narrow the land still more, and widen, deepen, and multiply gaps in chains of American islands ; for many points and wide tracts in the Kocky Mountains and in the Alleghanies rise far above a level of 3000 feet. If this theory be well founded ; if currents like those which now flow in the Atlantic have in fact flowed over North America in late geological times, ancient sea-margins ought to be found at old sea- levels on hill-sides ; and drift arranged by water in various forms ought to cover the plains and low- lands. The bed of the arctic current in the basins of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi should be scored by icebergs, or strewed with glacial drift at least as far as the present known limit of Atlantic icebergs, namely, lat. 36° 10'. The western coast of the American sea, and the ancient bed of the equatorial current, the plains * Many of the heights given are from observations taken with a pocket aneroid barometer, and are merely approximations to the truth. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 13 about the foot of the Rocky Mountains, ought to be as clear of glacial drift as the bed of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic now is ; but if the equatorial current passed westwards at Panama, the old arctic current and its drift may have reached lat. 36° 10' in these western regions also. The memoir above quoted says (p. 19) — ' Perhaps too little consideration has hitherto been given to the character and effects of the polar currents. These appear to be well worthy of the attention of both the navigator and the philosopher. We have seen that the moderate but unceasing flow of these currents often interposes an icy barrier in one of the most common routes of navigation. The observing geologist will also discern in the course of the great ice-currents of the Atlantic, both before and after their contact with the tropical stream, a striking coincidence with the direc- tions of the two systems of striae which mark the abraded surface of the continental rocks, the origin of which must be referred to the early and prolonged period when these rocks were situated beneath the ceaseless flow of the ocean-currents.'* Assuming that all North America was submerged to a considerable depth, it seems to follow that climates * Silliman's Journal, vol. xliii. p. 152 ; vol. xlv. p. 326. Quoted in the memoir. 14 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. changed place when the sea was over the central dis- trict. Some fresh evidence of a general submergence was found in North America, and more was gathered from recent books. In the first place, American rocks and fossils prove that every part of the continent now above water has been repeatedly submerged and up- heaved. Sea-shells are preserved in sedimentary strata of all ages. Eegions on which land-plants grew in the carboniferous age were then above water, and yet sea- fish are buried in rocks which overlie coal-seams and upright tree-stumps. Strata of vast thickness, which are now crumpled and folded into ridges in the Alle- ghany Mountains, cover regions of ancient disturbance, and may therefore have been lately disturbed. They may have sunk and risen again ; for land is sinking or rising now in Scandinavia, Spitzbergen, Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland. Volcanic phenomena, earthquakes, etc., abound in the Eocky Mountains. Areas which were sea-bottoms in Laurentian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Cretaceous, or later ages, and which are now moving, may have formed the bed of an American sea during some recent post-tertiary age. Recent sea-shells, water-worn gravel, sand, and such-like materials, packed in certain forms ; ' terraces of deposi- PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 15 tion ' — matter arranged in the form of sea-margins, and ' terraces of erosion ' — horizontal shelves and cliffs — are water-marks ; and their position may be such as to prove them to be sea-marks. These marks prove a possible case. They abound along the coast in Labrador and New- foundland, and mark a sea-level there. Eecent sea- shells of arctic type occur at an elevation of 500 feet above the sea, near Ottawa, in the centre of Canada, and the hills in that region are conspicuously terraced, and covered with drift. Similar shells occur above terraces near Quebec. Allowing these shells 70 feet of water to live in, this level carries the sea to Chicago. A bed of cockles was lately found by an Irishman in digging a well at Brockville, at the foot of Lake Ontario ; and the bones of a seal, and of a whale, were found, together with sea-shells, near Montreal. The bones of a whale were found in Vermont. These marks carry the sea to Hamilton, close to the Falls of Niagara, and through the valley of the Hudson to New York, and prove that it was a cold sea. Foreign boulders are perched on the top of Montreal Mountain, a rock which stands alone in the wide river-plain ; and Montreal Mountain is scored with glacial stria3. These are authentic records ; some of them are preserved in the museum at Montreal, and recorded in books of authority ; others rest on per- 16 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. sonal observation : they seem to prove that a great part of America was submerged during a glacial period. Other records less well authenticated have value when thus supported. An English hunter who now lives at Wilmington, near Chicago, asserts that com- mon oyster-shells are scattered on hills between Madison and the Yellowstone Eiver, somewhere be- tween lat. 44° and 46° N, and long. 110° and 114° W. They were 'as natural as on a beach.' Baltimore oysters are commonly eaten in all western towns to which railways extend, and everyone knows an oyster ; but no luxurious emigrant would be apt to carry bar- relled oysters to the far west. The hunter supposed that Indians had carried the oysters to their hills, for though moss-grown they seemed quite fresh. They were found in great numbers, and at many places in the region. If these be recent shells in situ, or washed out of drift by the rains, they carry the sea to the foot of the Eocky Mountains, and drown the whole central dis- trict of North America. The salt lakes of the Eocky Mountains seem to carry it still further : they are supposed to be remnants of a partially-dried-up inland sea, for they have no outlets. Eeturning to the Atlantic coast, a sick soldier who had been a schoolmaster, and who had lately returned PHYSICAL GEOGKAPHY. 17 from ' the front,' asserted at Washington that, in October 1864, he had seen a bed of common sea-shells of many sorts at a considerable height above the James Kiver, near Eichmond. According to Dana, Sir W. Logan, and others, who are able geologists and skilled witnesses, recent sea- shells of arctic type occur at many spots in drift, in Canada, in central and eastern North America, and else- where, e.g., at Boston and near New York. The formations which are associated with these sea- shells — namely, stratified gravel-beds, rolled stones, etc., arranged in plains and terraces — abound on both sides of the White Mountains along the Grand Trunk Eailway. At Mount Washington a patch of drift occurs above 3000 feet, near the newly-made coach-road. Glacial striae at 2600 feet point horizontally south-westwards, through a gap, and the watershed of the gap is 600 feet lower than these striae. There is a drift-terrace in the pass. Terraces and plains of water-worn drift abound throughout this mountain region. On the Canadian side they occur at 1500 feet, at the highest point on this line. These were observed by Hitchcock. On the Atlantic slope they occur at equal and greater heights. They are conspicuous objects all along this railway line, and similar shapes and materials 18 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. recur about the same levels on the road between Boston and Albany, and on the Catskill Moun- tains. The nearest lands of equal height are eastwards in Europe ; northwards beyond the St. Lawrence, in the Laurentian chain ; and westwards beyond the Mississippi and the great lakes, in the Eocky Mountains. At the head of Lake Superior is a terrace 930 feet above the sea, and all the great lakes are surrounded by systems of terraces at lower levels. If any of these high terraces are in fact ancient sea-margins, the whole land has risen pretty equally, for the variation in the level of each terrace is small. But if the land has risen equally, the level of the terrace at the head of Lake Superior sinks the watershed at the foot of Lake Michigan, and leaves no opposite shore to hold a lake. The northern terrace is 930 feet above the sea, the watershed below Chicago is 650. It is only 800 feet at Fort Wayne, and 1000 at Sandusky, a place more than 250 miles east of Chicago. At all these places glaciated boulders, water- worn drift, and stratified sand abound* When sea- shells are carefully sought, they will be found in the * According to the survey of the Mississippi basin, the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri is 381 feet above high water ; the utmost source of the Mississippi, 1680 ; mouth of the Ohio, 275 ; Louisville, 361; Pittsburg, 975; northern watershed towards Lake Erie, 1563 to 1065. GEOLOGY. 19 prairie, if this theory be well founded. Thus ancient water-levels are marked on opposite heights. In Europe by shells on Snowdon at 3000 feet ; on Mount Washing- ton by drift about the same level ; at Ottawa by arctic shells in drift at 500 feet ; at the head of Lake Superior by a terrace at 930 feet ; at the foot of Lake Michigan by water-rolled gravel and stratified sand, beneath boulder- clay, which contains scratched stones of northern origin. A few links only are wanting to carry the sea-level to the oyster-shells of the buffalo-hunter, to the salt dominions of Brigham Young, and to the Pacific. In this argument boulders have weight. They speak from high platforms in the White Mountains, from a Chi- cago platform of their own, and down south. But in order to understand their drift, some explanation is necessary. The chief features of American geology, as explained by American geologists, are marked and simple. The Laurentian chain to the north of the St. Lawrence is from two to three thousand feet high ; it consists of so- called azoic rocks. The formation extends from Hamil- ton Inlet in Labrador, westward beyond Lake Superior.; its northern limit is unknown, but, according to Dana,* no rocks of the age occur at the surface between lat. 45° and 36° 10', except near Lake Superior and at the foot * Manual of Geology, 1863. 20 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. of Lake Erie. The Laurentian formation consists chiefly of hard metamorphic crystalline rocks, granites, gneiss, syenites, schists, serpentines, marbles, quartz, coarse conglomerates, etc. The parent rock, the oldest sedi- mentary formation known, has been upheaved, shat- tered, crumpled, contorted, and is so altered, as almost to obliterate all traces of life. Fossils lately discovered in rocks of this age, by Sir William Logan in Canada, and by Sir Eoderick Murchison in Scotland, were hard even to find and recognise. These 'azoic' rocks are hard, glittering, and susceptible of high polish ; they are striped, barred, and spotted with conspicuous bright colours, strongly contrasted and arranged in patterns which catch the eye. They resist weather, and retain their shape and polish. Eocks to the south of this Laurentian region, in the central districts of North America, between lat. 45° and 36° 10', belong to newer formations — Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Cretaceous, etc. These have been less disturbed, and are less altered, than the ' fundamental gneiss ' on which they are supposed to rest, and from whose debris they grew. They are not generally crys- talline, and do not usually shine ; their colours are sombre and uniform, they have numerous traces of life, and they are easily scratched with iron or hard stone : YANKEE BOULDERS. 21 some even with the nail. They are not susceptible of a high polish, and, when smoothed, easily yield to weather. A bit of old Canadian azoic rock — a striped, polished, sculptured boulder, transported to Niagara, or to the coal regions of the Ohio — is therefore conspicu- ous from contrast in hardness, lustre, colour, shape, and polish. It is as remarkable as a red coat is in an army of graybacks, or a tartan plaid in Philadelphia, or threadbare broadcloth amongst shoddy ; to see it is to know it as a foreign production carried from north to south. These large conspicuous stones have been carried to great heights, and southwards in great numbers, from lat 45° at the nearest, at least to lat. 39°, near St. Louis on the Mississippi ; and the phenomenon demands some explanation. It is admitted by all geologists who know the facts, that ice in some shape carried boulders from north to south ; but there are two rival schools of ' Glacialists. Like American politicians, they are republicans and de- mocrats, both far advanced, and both determined to go ahead and fight. The old tory party call both ice- mad ; but there is method in such madness, and such crazy folk are apt to lead wise men. The views of the most advanced school are now held by Agassiz, and are clearly stated by him in the Atlantic 22 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. Magazine for 1864. The author, who did so much for science in his own country, describes Alpine glaciers, their nature, movements, action, and marks new and old. Having clearly explained that which he thoroughly knows, he refers to marks in the British Isles, which he studied in 1840. These * dressed rocks' were early noticed by Scotch geologists, who could not explain them without the ice-key. They are well described in a late pamphlet by Mr. A. Geikie.* These and similar marks, found and described by others in Scandinavia and else- where, led the Swiss philosopher, familiar with ice in the form of glaciers, to believe that during a late period, to be called ' the glacial period,' all northern Europe was covered by one great compound glacier. It was a sheet of ice which flowed down from all mountains and moun- tain-ranges, filled and bridged over hollows which now contain lakes and inland seas, covered and moved over plains and low hills. It crushed and ground rocks, pushed and carried stones from centres of dispersion, as glaciers still do in Switzerland and Greenland. Vast moraines in Lombardy and in Germany now mark spots to which the Alpine system once extended ; the Scan- dinavian system reached Toland and England, and it * On the Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland, by Archibald Geikie. Glasgow, John Gray, 99 Hutchison Street. 1863. RIVAL GLACIALISTS. 23 joined the Scotch, Welsh, and Swiss systems. Many of the Italian lakes are but pools of rain-water behind giant moraines of this European ' glacial period.' Northern boulders, the Goths and Vandals of geology, invaded the south, overran and remodelled it ; their hardy re- mains have caused a modern geological revolution, and a sturdy fight, which still endures. The July number of the Atlantic Monthly contains the growth of this Alpine glacial theory on American soil. It is broadly stated by Agassiz, that drift and other marks of glacial action reach the banks of the Ohio, and extend to Georgia and Alabama in the Alleghany Mountains. If so, they only reach latitudes which are now reached by floating glacier-ice in the Atlantic ; but these facts have led the advanced party to believe that a continuous glacier covered the whole American Continent, from the Polar Eegions to the limit of northern drift. European glaciers, and European and American facts, together form the base of the glacial theory now explained and adopted by Agassiz. He holds that two ancient glaciers covered great part of both hemispheres ; their neve was 15,000 feet thick at the poles, and grew chiefly there from falling snow ; the ice, formed by pressure, was 6000 feet thick about latitude 44° in the White Mountains, and 10,000 feet thick in the Alps. The two polar glaciers 24 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. moved towards each other, and towards the equator, radiating every way from the poles on meridians ; they spread like lumps of putty or dough, which are crushed and pushed outwards by their own weight. This general direct movement was slightly modified by the shape of the ground ; and ice also spread from local centres, as it now does in Greenland. The northern glacier, it is said, passed over the low mountains of the Laurentian chain in Labrador and Canada, as small glaciers now pass over smaller elevations ; it ground these mountains into ' roches moutonnees' 2000 or 3000 feet high ; and at the same time a southern glacier of equal dimensions did as much at the antipodes, and left its tracks in South America. ' The glacier was God's great plough, which left the land prepared for the husbandman.' The causes which changed the climate of the whole world have yet to be explained by Agassiz in a promised paper. A similar theory was less boldly advocated by Dana, in his Manual of Geology, 1863. The prevalence of long deep fjords, and the abundance of lakes and rock- basins in high latitudes, are noticed as facts which sup- port the big glacier. Both these writers quote Professor Ramsay, Sir W. Logan, and other eminent geologists, who either hold similar views or incline towards them. Mr. John de Laski also supports the glacier, and RIVAL THEORIES. 25 gives an account of glaciated rocks about Penobscot Bay. According to his description, the amount of glaciation equals, but does not exceed, that of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, Maine, New York, Scot- land, Ireland, Wales, Iceland, and Scandinavia. One explanation must fit all these countries or none. On the other hand, democratic American glacialists, ready for battle but hankering after peace, have sup- ported more conservative views. Jackson, in his Geo- logy of New Hampshire, 1844, attributes glacial strise and the transport of boulders to ice-rafts and tides. He points out the usefulness of the water-flood, which, as he maintains, mingled the soils and augmented their use for agricultural purposes. He mentions the glacial theories of Agassiz, published about that time, but only to object to them. The American explained the puzzle by ice-rafts in a shallow sea, with which he was familiar at home ; the Swiss, by his native glaciers. At page 113, Jackson describes a notable set of water-marks near Mount Washington, which is 6228 feet high. At a height of 1229 feet above the sea, at a summit-level which divides the tributary streamlets of the Connecticut and Merrimac rivers, and from 900 to 1000 feet above these streams, he found large pot-holes in hard granite. One is 11 feet deep, and 4 feet in diameter. When 26 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. first discovered, it was full of smooth round stones ; it was smooth inside, and in all respects similar to pot- holes in neighbouring river-beds ; but no large stream could possibly reach the spot without some extraordinary change in the physical geography of the district. ' Drift- scratches,' running from N. 10° E. to S. 10° W. (by compass), were numerous on all rocks newly uncovered in this neighbourhood ; and rows of smaller pot-holes corresponded to this direction, which is about N. and S. true. In such a position, large pot-holes and striae seem to mean heavy streams of water bearing heavy ice nearly due south (true), at a level which would sink most of the land in America, and, in particular, many terraces in this region. Those who uphold the glacier call such marks giant's tubs, and attribute to them streams falling through glaciers into ' moulins.' In this case no mere local glacier could reach the spot. Striae noticed by this writer on the eastern slopes come generally from N. 15° W. ; and go to S. 15° E. They do not radiate from local centres as glaciers do. Silurian boulders have followed a similar course from heights near the Canada road and Aroostook river to islands in Penobscot Bay. Conglomerate of Sugar-Loaf Mountain is found 100 miles S.E. in Eddington. Iron- ore from Iron Mountain in Cumberland, E. I., has been RIVAL THEORIES. 27 carried 40 miles southward. How much further stones may have travelled from these points, or where stones really came from, it is hard to say ; for the whole eastern coast is strewed with stones which may have come from Labrador, because they resemble rocks in that country. There are conglomerates in Newfoundland, and iron-ore is found in Nova Scotia. The whole subject of surface-geology is treated by Hitchcock, in papers in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 1857. After quoting Chambers on ancient sea-margins, Ly ell, and other writers, he declares his own impression to be that old sea-bottoms may still be traced in many parts of America to the height of 1000 to 2000 feet above the present sea-level. It has been shown above that drift rises to 3000 feet at least on the flank of Mount Washington. Maps, sections, and a table of elevations at which ' terraces ' and ' beaches ' were found by this author, are added to his work. Two beaches are marked near Mount Washington — in White Mountain notch, and Franconia notch — both of which are high passes. They occur at 2665, 2449, 2073, 1963 feet above the sea in this region, according to this author. No sea-shells had been found in the Alleghanies in November 1864, so far as known to the learned at Boston, though drift-shells had been discovered in low 28 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. hills near Boston itself. Similar beaches were observed by Hitchcock at 2547 feet on Snowdon, where marine shells have since been found at 3000 ; and more ' beaches ' were found at 2640 feet in Switzerland, where shells have not yet been found. After 30 years of experience in the study of surface-geology, this writer says : * It is hardly venturing beyond a legitimate con- clusion, in view of the preceding facts, to say that all the northern part of this (American) continent, at least all east of the Mississippi, has been covered by the ocean since the drift period. The same reasoning, of course, applies to Europe also. The travelled American, familiar with Swiss glaciers, and with American ice-rafts, and with the works of other writers, appears to have hit the mark. He supposes that the whole continent sank during the period of boulder-clay, and rose during the period of ' modified drift.' While sunk it was covered by an ice- laden sea, which grew warmer as the land rose again. The sea was then inhabited by shells. No reason for the change in climate is given by Hitchcock. The reason suggested above is the change in the direc- tion of the Arctic Current, which would result from the sinking and rising of the Laurentian chain. That block of land now bars the way, and sends ice and its climate DIVIDED AFFECTIONS. 29 to the middle of the Atlantic, instead of the Western States. Were it to sink 1000 feet, the stream would flow south-west to the Western States, instead of the land under the sea about lat. 36°. There are then two schools of glacialists, — a small party, who attribute the phenomena of the drift almost entirely to the action of enormous land-glaciers ; and a larger party, who attribute them chiefly to icebergs. According to some writers, a great elevation of land pro- duced large local glaciers in low latitudes. According to others, a general rise of land about the poles, which confined the ocean to warm regions, intensified polar cold so as to change the climate of the whole earth. According to some, the cold geological period passed away when land and sea were more evenly distributed, as they now are. Others, again, explain the facts which all must admit by assuming a change in the tempera- ture of the solar system, or in the position of the earth's axis. On the facts they found a glacial period, on which they found their astronomical theory. Admiring all theories, wedded to none ; attracted by icebergs, attached to glaciers, and anxious to choose between them, the writer set off for Yankeedoodledom in search of cold hard facts. CHAPTER II. LIVERPOOL TO HALIFAX. With divided affections, dragged forward by sympathy with vagrant icebergs held by the big glacier and by the strong men who stand by it, and anxious to steer his own course, the writer started for Labrador in search of facts to be added to a store gathered elsewhere during twenty years. The following pages may help to swell the pile on which truth must finally rest. So now for the journal. Steamer Europa, July 10, 1864. Off Ireland. I found at the station in a state of mind about catching me in America. He might as well hope to find a needle in a hay-loft. I shall leave him letters at Halifax, and elsewhere, and if he chooses to follow me, I shall be very glad to see him. I got to Liverpool at 3.15, and slept till eight. At ten, I got on board the Satellite, and boarded the Europa with the rest of the passengers, and all their luggage ; and thereupon we sailed. The Great Eastern was getting up steam to go stewards' pakade. 31 to London for the Atlantic cable. We expected a race, but she did not start so soon as we did. The Liverpool lads were firing great guns at a target, and we gradually slanted across their line of fire as we passed out. The shot came skipping across our bows, and then right after us, within a couple of hundred yards. It was curious to watch first the smoke, then the heavy plunge, and long afterwards the distant boom of the big- gun a couple of miles away. The Liverpool banks, and the Welsh coast, were covered with haze, and we saw nothing till we got near Holyhead. There is a haze over the land now, and we can see nothing to-day, but the weather is delightful. The sun is shining, and a soft breeze blowing right after us ; the sea blue and crisp, and the lazy old ship rolling quietly along from side to side with a quiver at every stroke of the paddles. Wind and tide and all in her favour, she cannot make more of it than nine knots. A stupid little brat of a steamer, running to the Isle of Man, went past us yesterday as if we were at anchor We are a numerous crew, with nothing to do, and ten days to do it in. At eight a bell rings, and till 9.30 we may breakfast. At one we have a solid lunch ; at four we dine. Everything at dinner goes on as if by machinery. A row of stewards stand in the doorway, and the dishes pass in to the steward 32 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. who is at the head of the column, who drops each dish into its place. As the operation advances, so does the column of stewards, and the leader is at the end of the cabin by the time the tables are covered. Then comes a solemn pause, and then a wink, and all the covers rise simultaneously, clatter like a flock of gulls, pile themselves in heaps, pass down the line, and dis- appear. Then in such weather as this, it is worry worry, and the food disappears down the red lane. Dinner over we smoke, and at seven we tea ; after that we smoke, and at ten we drink night-caps. I hear that it is very easy to get a small vessel at St. John's, and that there are lots of steamers running about in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; so I can get away when I get tired of my ship. There are lots of Jersey men established along the gulf, and generally it looks very pleasant in the distance. And now for the cigar of resignation on the quarter-deck of this great Noah's ark. One p.m. Here we are at Cork. July 12, 1864. At sea. On Sunday we landed at Queenstown, hired a jaunt- ing-car, and drove for an hour and a half up towards Cork, and round by the back of the town. I wanted to find 'A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE.' 33 ice-marks ; and, to my surprise, I saw neither boulders nor scratches. The driver modestly asked half-a-crown a head, and got it ; for we were in a good humour. At 3.30 we started from the pier, with the mails, in a small steamer, and the big one cast loose as we came along- side. The two vessels, tied together, steamed out past Spike Island ; and when we got clear of the harbour, the little one cast loose and went home to Ireland. We saw the old Head of Kinsale in the evening, and at night we passed Cape Clear, and made our course for Cape Race. As Admiral used to say, " In good time be it spoken," we have had glorious weather so far. The wind has been steady, northerly and easterly, and we have carried sail all the way. The air is about 62°, and the water 60°, the sun shining at intervals, and no swell to signify. Of all our numerous company, only half-a-dozen are absent at meal-times, and these eat and drink merrily in bed. The most of us play games of various sorts — draughts, chess, backgammon, whist, ecarte, yucca, etc. — in the saloon ; and on the deck outside there are two games at shuffle-board con- tinually going. Another entertainment is to throw small bags of beans through hoops hung about seven feet from the deck. These are pastimes ; the occupa- tion of the day is eating. If any one wants perfect D 34 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. repose of mind and body, this seems to be the right shop. I have fallen in with an old friend whom I met once, fifteen years ago, at Trondhjem. He was up at Alten with Eobert Chambers, and helped him to measure terraces. Since then he has been a great deal in South America, and he is now going to Bolivia. He says that terraces abound in Chili along the coast, and up the valleys there are generally three distinct steps at cor- responding levels. There are no glaciers, and no ice- marks in any part of South America ; where he has been, at least, he has seen none. He is great upon earthquakes. He says that he has often heard the sound rising up under his bed, getting nearer and nearer, and then he has felt his bed rise under him, as if some one had lifted it. So have I felt a coming outburst of the great Geyser in Iceland. He gave me a curious bit of information about an observatory in Chili. It was built on a conical hill of basalt, and the transit instru- ment gave all sorts of unexpected results. At last some one discovered that the intense heat of the sun made the whole hill expand unequally, so as to move the observatory, instruments and all ; so the light of the sun is a mechanical power. Except this friend, I never saw one of our lot before. 'A HOME ON THE ROLLING DEEP.' 35 July 1864 Wednesday 13. — The weather, the same; temperature, ditto ; employment, ditto. It has been discovered that the first lieutenant and several of the crew of the ' Ala- bama ' are on board ; also a man whom they caught and kept prisoner, on board, for six weeks, after burning his ship ; also a man belonging to the ' Kearsarge.' They keep themselves to themselves, and, generally, we are a very unsociable lot of mortals. Thursday 14. — Yesterday we had three adventures. We saw a rat, some porpoises, and the 'Africa' on her homeward voyage, about lat. 51° 22' N; long. 2G° 05' W. We ran 232 miles between noon and noon, and on the 12th, 239. In the evening it fell dead calm, and then the wind shifted right round from N.E. to S.W., and it began to blow up a bit of a breeze. It is now blowing smartly, and we are spinning along, making more than ten knots, with lots of sail set. The captain who was taken by the ' Alabama' has been confiding his sorrows to one of the officers, who has retailed them to me. He says that it was unpleasant to lose his chrono- meter, his own private property, and to see his wife's dresses put under a table to set the ship on fire. Friday 15. — Yesterday we saw a bird, a ship, and a rat. In the evening, the wind headed us, and then it 36 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. fell calm : now the wind is back to S.W., the sea is smooth as a mill-pond, and there is a thick fog. We are making 10j, all sail set. If it were not for the trembling of the ship, this life wonld be ' truly rural.' I am awakened by the crowing of a cock and the lowing of a cow ; or rather I was, for the cock has ceased to crow, and it is my firm conviction that he was roasted. The Secesh lieutenant is very like a big Garibaldi. I have been striving to make a por- trait of him, under the table, but I have not managed it yet. This crossing of the Atlantic is a very slow pro- ceeding, and ' that's a fact.' Saturday 16. — In the evening it fell quite calm, and the moon came out brightly. The air was soft and warm, and I stayed on deck till near midnight, smoking and enjoying the weather. I was roused in the morning by the fog whistle, and found a wonderful change. The water was a great deal colder yesterday ; to-day it was only 47i°, and after breakfast we came in sight of ice- bergs. There was a big one on the horizon, and we passed close beside two small ones. They were beautiful. The fog had vanished, but it could be seen resting on the sea behind us. The sun shone on a bright, sparkling, blue sea, and the icebergs glittered and shone like polished marble streaked with Prussian blue. The ICEBERGS. 37 highest of the near ones was about 30 feet above water, at one-seventh, 210 feet thick. About noon, we passed a big one, distant about six miles. He looked about the size of the Bass Eock, and, through the glass, the ice looked like a splintered cliff. I could make out veins and strata of dark-coloured dirt, probably beds of gravel. One bed in particular was very plain. I took the opinion of several knowing hands on board, and we all agreed in estimating the height at more than 200 feet. The visible length was about 200 to 300 yards. At one- seventh, this lump was 1400 feet thick. As we are far south of England, in lat. 48° 44', long. 44° 35' W., 336 miles from the nearest land, and a long way from the nearest Greenland glacier, this is a good case of transport of drift by sea-ice. There has been a deal of excitement about the bergs. Yesterday, we nearly had a different excitement. A young Yankee, who seems to be a snob, thought proper to talk loud about the late fight. He said that Semmes had surrendered his ship, and ought to have surrendered himself, but that he had sneaked off like a villain. The big lieutenant could have eaten him, and some of the people advised him to punch his head, but he wisely spoke to the captain, who took the young offender into his cabin and gave him a bit of his mind. I found him on deck pulling at his gloves and fuming 38 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. tremendously. A friend was advising him to lay the matter before the authorities at Washington. He has now grown calm, and there will be no bloodshed this bout. Now for another iceberg. Sunday 17. — We saw large icebergs till sunset, and the water continued cold. The berg near which we passed looked like a small white speck on the horizon, and it was thirty feet high at least. Those which we saw at a distance looked like large islands. One at about fifteen miles looked very like Mont St. Michel as it appears from Avranches ; another was very like Ailsa Craig ; a third was like the end of the Isle of Wight as seen from Blackgang Chine. I firmly believe that they were as large as hills on the English coast. At sunset their colours were very beautiful, rosepink with Prussian blue shadows ; but they were so far away that without a good glass no details were seen. These are some of the shapes of the big ones. At one time we got amongst a cluster of small bits, and had to turn out of our way to avoid them. They were as big as haystacks, and melted into strange shapes. They were plunging and rocking, and the sea breaking over them. If we had run foul of them they would have sunk us, or the paddles would have been smashed. I am in luck thus to sec bergs at once. As for weather, I SEA-FOGS. 39 am tired of praising it. The fog-whistle was going in the morning, and fog banks are resting on the horizon here and there, but the sun is shining brightly, and the sea is smooth. The wind is cold and sharp, and we are in arctic water, but it is very pleasant sailing. Monday 18. — It was curious last night to watch the fogs. It seemed as if the region of clouds had been lowered to the sea level. The horizon was hard as a board, and the air quite clear, but every here and there a gray wall of cloud rested on the sea. It came sweep- ing down wind, and when it reached us the bow was hidden from the stern in a moment. The melancholy groans of the fog-whistle began, and the old ship, shriek- ing and groaning every two minutes, plunged on her way through the dense cloud. In ten minutes it passed away to leeward as suddenly as it came ; the moon shone out, and the groaning ceased. About grog-time a big steamer was seen, and we exchanged rockets and blue-lights and such like marine civilities. We heard no sound, so the fog- whistle is of small use. The cap- tain made for the place where Cape Eace ought to be, but he could not see the light, which is placed high, and he held on his course. This morning we have got into the lee of Newfoundland, and there is a marvellous 40 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. change. The water is seven degrees warmer, and the clouds are up in the air where they ought to be. The sun is bright and the air balmy, and the passengers are hard at their usual games. Tuesday 19. — All yesterday very fine and warm. The water getting warmer as we get under the lee of the land. We saw some whales spouting, and a Mother Carey's chicken, and that was the only excitement. A gentleman told me part of his adventures in the evening. He went up to the diggings in Australia and worked with two others till they dug a hole sixty feet deep. They had then reached a layer of big stones, ' common blue stones,' with the corners rounded off, and neatly packed as if laid by a mason. In the chinks they could see the gold glittering, and they washed some dirt and found it rich. Well pleased, they left their tools in the hole to keep possession, and went to sleep. In the night a pool of water broke in, and when they went to the mine the sides had fallen, and all their tools were buried. All the money they had was invested in the tools, so they walked back to Melbourne, sixty miles, without * a red cent; and the sailor went to sea again. In the night the fog-horn groaned two or three times. Now the sky is blue, and the sun white-hot HALIFAX. 41 and brighter than any sunlight that I have seen since I was in the same southern latitudes many years ago. When this steamer stops at Boston she will be in the latitude of Eome. When I get north to St. John's, I shall be as far south as Nantes. Wednesday, July 20, Halifax. — We got in last night at a quarter to nine by the time here ; one in the morning by London time. We got to this, Halifax Hotel, and then wandered about the streets till all hours of the morning. By all accounts here, it will not be easy to get to Labrador, for all the fishermen are gone from Halifax and Newfoundland. If I can't get on I will come back, but I will go as far as I can. CHAPTEE III. NOVA SCOTIA TO NEWFOUNDLAND. July 20, 1864. Halifax. Here we are about the latitude of Bordeaux. Asked about sporting and icebergs. It seems that there is no fishing in Nova Scotia worthy of the name. It seems strange that so little should be known about neighbour- ing colonies. Only a few wandering sportsmen know anything about the places to which I am bound ; the ways of Newfoundland and Labrador seem utterly un- known to 'Bluenoses.' Tried for a chart of Labrador, and found that no good chart exists. In the evening drove by rail to Windsor, forty miles. The route is through a country which is as nature made it. The highest point on the line is about 550 feet above the sea. The woods are chiefly pine, with hard wood and low brush ; the ground a mass of boulders and bare rocks. Lakes abound ; and in one of them, called Rocky Lake, a company have established an ice- GOLD. 43 house, with railway complete, for exporting ice to the States and elsewhere. About thirty miles from the eastern coast the country changes. The rocks are softer, and include shales and sandstones, limestones and beds of clay. The country is cleared and well cultivated. The belt of forest and wild land extends about twenty miles from the eastern coast all along Nova Scotia. The Gulf Stream runs nearly east, at a considerable dis- tance from the coast. The cold stream runs westward, near it. The tide at Halifax rises only four feet. In lat, 45° the look of the country is the same as in lat. 71° in Norway; but here are willows, and other such trees, which do not grow about the North Cape. Gold abounds, and the colonists are in a fever about it. At one place, near the sea, they found enough to make it pay ; now they are quartz-mining. Windsor is a neat wooden town on a branch of the Bay of Fundy. It is surrounded by gardens and green fields ; and when we arrived, a vast plain of mud stretched as far as the eye could reach. Vessels on the stocks were forty or fifty feet up, and looked as if they never could get afloat. After going to bed, heard the rushing of the tide, and then remembered that the tides are famous in this place. A travelling gymnast was walking matches against time, backwards and forwards, with a wheel-barrow and witli 44 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. a cart-wheel, and throwing 56 lbs. over his head. Gave the poor cl — 1 a shilling ; for he had only got a few coppers for all his work. July 21, 1864. Windsor, Nova Scotia. — Water 70°, air 80°, at 3 p.m. Heat oppressive after the cold of the sea. Walked about six miles, and made a sketch from the bank above the bridge. The flood-tide was well worth seeing. A broad plain of red mud stretching to the horizon, was suddenly streaked with silver lines, and then the 'bore,' a foot high, came rushing up the narrow lanes of water. It came slowly, roaring hoarsely, and the broad tide spread behind it. In half an hour the broad plain was covered by a wide, red torrent, whirling like a mill-sluice, boiling, eddying, and sweeping everything that would float before it. From the water's edge the sea looked like a steep mound of water, a furious rapid, pouring down from the horizon. By 3 p.m. the tide was up to the edge of the wharfs, and the muddy water had cleared in the centre. Boats came creeping out of odd corners, and the sea was forty feet deep over the plain of mud. According to the sailing directions the tides in the Bay of Fundy seem to result from the cramming of the tidal wave into a narrow wedge-like opening. In THE WINDSOR TIDE. 45 the Bay of Mines the water sometimes rises 75 feet, while the tide in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, beyond the narrow isthmus, 16 miles wide, rises 8 feet. At Windsor, where the tide has to turn round a point, it rises 40 feet. In the wider part of the bay it rises 30 feet only. In some parts of the bay are dangerous whirlpools, where the stream runs nine knots. The bottom seems to be composed of the debris of the soft rocks, and it seems highly probable that the sea will break through, and make an island of Nova Scotia, unless the land rises. About high-water mark the shore is strewed with very large boulders of coarse granite, and numerous other stones foreign to this dis- trict. It is evident that this creek is growing larger by the wearing of its banks. They are undermined at high-water mark. The rock near the bridge is a soft limestone full of fossils, interstratified with beds of loose clay dipping at a high angle. In winter the Bay of Fundy freezes, and this great tide packs the ice till it looks 'like the boulders on shores/ No doubt the ice moves the granite boulders and cuts into the grooved bank like a big saw. Ice-marks abound in this district. In Halifax I took several rubbings ; and at the summit level, 550 feet, took some more. The natives supposed that I was prospecting for gold, and 46 AN AMERICAN TEAMP. were very much interested in the proceedings. The direction is about N. 55° W. to S. 55° E. The direction of the Gulf Stream S. 70° W. The trend of the coast S. 50° W. There are no high mountains to account for local glaciers, and the marks on the highest tops corre- spond in direction with marks near the sea-level twenty miles away. The boulder-clay contains fragments of sandstone, and the coal-measures are to the K 50° E. in Cape Breton, and N.W. in New Brunswick. Saw several Indian camps. The small boys came to the train to stare and sell strawberries. The men carried guns, and dressed like English gamekeepers. The women were wild-looking, and very picturesque ; their walk, a peculiar stride like the gait of men who in Sweden walk on snow-shoes. The wigwams were made of birch-bark and fir-poles, conical, with a hole in the top. These people are Micmacs, and speak English and their own language. The forest was burn- ing in a dozen places, set on fire by cinders from the engine. In the evening went on board the steamer Delta, and slept in a small cabin with five other big men. Conse- quent mutual suffocation considerable. July 22, 1864— Friday.— Start at 10. Coast bold and hills rounded, but weather hazy ; sea smooth, fair SYDNEY, CAPE BRETON. 47 wind, vessel rolling abominably all day. Lots of ships in sight. In the morning in sight of Flint Islands, on which there is a lighthouse. There is a gap between these islands. A few years ago there was a foot-bridge across the gap, now it has become a wide deep passage. This coast is therefore wearing rapidly ; it is broken by the undermining of waves and the battering of ice. The rock is sandstone, in beds nearly horizontal. Coal is seen in the cliffs, dip JST. Made Sydney at 10.15, twenty- five hours from Halifax. A fine section of the coal-mea- sures is in the sea-cliffs. There is not a single fault or dyke in many miles, apparent dip 1ST. 10.° The hills are about three or four hundred feet high, forest-clad ; trees low, soil thin, and strewn witli boulders of granite and other hard rocks. The vegetation is very like that of Scandinavia — stunted pines, birch, and hard wood, multiberries in the bogs, and strawberries abundant. One coal-mine is about five miles from the sea, and has a railway. The temperature of the water at the bottom is 47°, air 68° outside; it is 360 feet deep. The average temperature of the place may therefore be taken at 41°, as marked by Dove. It is near the lati- tude of La Eochelle, where the average temperature is 55°. A similar cold temperature on the European coast is found north of Bergen, and the isothermal line passes 48 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. near the south of Iceland. The appearance of the coun- try coincides with the ascertained climate. It is very like Norway, very unlike La Bochelle, in sunny France. The colonists are chiefly Highlanders from Uist, Barra, Inverness, and other parts of the Highlands. Grown men who were born in the colony, children, and people who came from the old country, all speak Gaelic. Many are flourishing farmers, others work in the mines, and earn as much as * ten shillings a day.' Asked many of them if they thought more emigrants would succeed. The answers were various; but the substance is that young men will find plenty of employment, and that a man with a strong family is sure to succeed. The winter cold is the great drawback. A cute Irishman on board the steamer, who is said to be a famous farmer in New- foundland, held the Cape Breton people very cheap ; he pointed out that Yankees come all the way from Boston to catch the fish which none of these fellows will catch, themselves. The mines are worked by Yankee companies, and the farmers allow themselves to be cheated by hucksters, who buy their produce cheap and retail it to the ships. At one farm he found a man well to do but a wretched farmer. He asked why he did not lime his land, as there was excellent lime beside him. ' Oh,' said the other, ' I did once, but the grass grew a CAPE BRETON FARMING. 49 yard high, and I was afraid that I would take all the good out of it at once, so I have never tried it a^ain.' Why did he not put on the sea-ware which was piled upon the shore in vast mounds ? ' Oh, that burned the grass right off.' < In short/ said the man, < I don't want to do better, I am well enough/ This was an English- man; but the principle is very like that of the old coun- try of Mrs. Maclarty. Went into sundry houses and found the usual familiar untidy ways. One fellow had built a round end of loose stones at the end of his wooden shanty. As this round-ended architecture is common in the Hebrides, asked if he did not come from the islands. He did, from Barra. The old familiar High- land manner here in the new world was polite as ever. One fellow with a black face led me to an Indian camp. Found squaws making baskets ; the men were at work stowing coals in the steamer, and doing such-like work. One woman was really pretty. In winter there is a great deal of ice in this harbour. The rocks at the water's edge are ground and rounded. The beach was quite different from anything which I have seen on the other side of the Atlantic. Searched in vain for bare rocks on shore. So went on board the steamer and sailed. This country is in a very primitive state. Directly the town is left, the wild forest begins. It is a maze of E 50 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. tangled plants growing in marshy hollows, and a wilder- ness of pine thickets on stony rock hills. In striving to run a bee-line towards the coal-mines, which we had seen from the steamer, we got fairly astray, and only made our point by steering so as to hit the railroad. Plants and landscapes resemble those of Scandinavia, about 60°. The temperature of the water in the coal- mine proves that the earth itself is no colder here than it is in Europe, but the temperature of the sea is very differ- ent. There is a cold current outside, inside in the Bay of Fundy it is less cold, and the difference in climate is proved by the aspect of the country. On one side is an English landscape with Indian corn added, on the other within forty miles is the bleak north. It is question- able whether a farmer gains by moving three thousand miles from a rocky sea-coast where the average tem- perature is 50°, to another equally rocky sea-coast where the temperature is 41°. If men will not fish and can- not farm at home, why should they farm and fish better without help or instruction in a worse climate, and a far wilder sea abroad ? The general feeling amongst these men appeared to be strong regret for their old haunts, and a yearning towards a countryman. ' These shores are not like our shores/ they said. 'This cold, gloomy, bleak win- ter is not like our own.' Many who only knew of the old TRANSPLANTED HIGHLANDERS. 51 country from their grandsires or their neighbours, asked if the other side was not a very different land. Philan- thropists who benefit tenants by helping them over the sea, would do well to study Dove's isotherms, and the effects of ice on climate. Strong breeze, bright sun. Sunday, July 24 — At sea ; strong breeze, vessel rolling fearfully, and a good sea on. Kan rather close to the Newfoundland coast in a haze, and clawed off ; then made for Cape Eace, which we passed in the night for the second time without seeing the light. CHAPTEE IV. ST. JOHN'S TO STRAITS OF BELLEISLE. Monday, July 25—9.30 A.M.— Made St. John's. The coast about Cape Spear is fine, hills about 500 feet high, with brush and stunted pine growing on them. The rocks are red sandstone, evidently very much glaciated, dipping at high angles. The entrance to the harbour is through a narrow passage guarded by forts. The harbour itself is in a hollow, at right angles to the entrance. All the town turned out to see all the military authorities salute the general commanding, who, with his aide, turned out in full fig — cocked hat and spurs. The < Ariel' was to start next day for 'the Labrador ;' so went on board, and found a filthy steamer, stinking most villanously. A place forward, newly painted, seemed the least bad, so chose a berth. The place in question was the forehold, roughly boarded over, and with twelve bunks rudely set up at the sides. They were too short for a man of ordinary dimensions, too low for common shoulders to lie on edge ; to get in CHEAP AND NASTY. 53 was a gymnastic feat ; to lie still, a violent exertion ; to get out, an exploit. To stand upright on the floor was impossible. The paint was wet ; but there was a companion-hutch which could not be closed, so fresh air must circulate below ; the screw was aft ; the paint would dry ; the blankets were new ; the sheets, though coarse brown holland, were fresh from the shop. It was the least dignified part of the ship — smoking was al- lowed ; and so the forehold of the * Ariel' was chosen for a home on the ocean wave. Passage up and down, and food for three weeks, £5 sterling ; cheap and nasty. Walked up to the top of the signal-hill, and found ice-marks very well preserved ; the direction nearly at right angles to the coast. There does not seem to be anything peculiar in the water-line ; yet this harbour freezes, and sea-ice drifts in and out every year. The marks on the hill were not made by shore-ice of this description ; on the other hand, they point directly across the main valleys and fjords of the island, and there is no higher ground from which local glaciers could come, and yet the marks are perfect on the sand- stone. This must be the work of sea-ice, like that which passes to the eastward in spring. We are here in the latitude of Nantes. There is an iceberg now in St. Mary's. Earlier in the year, sailing vessels, which got into the 54 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. ice far north, drifted down past St. John's, with bergs and pack-ice, in Qne great moving mass, 150 miles wide. The sea-coast consists of cliffs and ronnd rocks at the water-line. It is said that the land is rising now. July 26, Monday. — Sail at 10.30 ; very fine and warm, bright snn, wind off shore. Crowds on board going to a regatta at Harbour Grace, and to places all down the coast. The coast is high as far as Cape St. Francis. The section is very fine ; at one place the beds run in long folds, which are planed off at the top — a more conspicuous instance of denudation could not be conceived, and because of the marks on Signal-hill the plane was ice. The outline of the upper country has nothing to do with the geological formation below. It has been shorn over by some great ice-engine, but the last movement here was across the bays and valleys. Landed at Harbour Grace. Found great masses of terraced drift resting on polished striated rocks. Here the direction agrees with the shape of the country in some degree ; but the strise, though perfectly well marked, do not run down the harbour ; they cross it diagonally, and seem to run northwards. The marks on the shore where bay- ice abounds do not resemble these in the least. A large square island of ice, about eighty or one hundred feet out of water, was aground in Conception Bay. The chart 55 gives 45 and 115 fathoms (270 and 690 feet). At the rate of one-seventh, 100 feet above gives 600 below. Sketched the berg as we passed it, bnt saw no sign of a stone on the ice. It was of the colour of white marble, lustrous and shining, but shaded with blue ; some veins looked like brilliant lapis lazuli, but we were too far off to see it well. A whole fleet of small pieces were drifting from it out of the bay before the wind. In the middle of the night there was a disturbance. A reverend ' bay- man ' went on deck and saw breakers, upon which he shouted, 'Breakers ahead!' The captain, who took him for one of the crew, cursed him, and asked if he had only just seen them. No one stirred in our bunk ; but the fact was, that the vessel had nearly run stem on to a cliff in a thick fog. Wednesday 27. — Landed at 5 A.M., and walked in a fog to a hill-top. Perched blocks here and there ; but the rocks were all weathered, though rounded. Came down and joined the crowd. Went to breakfast at a kind of lodging-house, where the pork tasted of cod-liver oil, and the eggs were abominable. Got a wash and went on board again. The dip of the rocks 42 ° S. Steamed to Catalina from Trinity. Landed again and walked to the top of another hill. Eock yellow, slaty; dip 14° W.N.W. Cleavage E.S.E. 54°, magnetic. At this place the ice 56 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. in winter extended 140 miles from the coast. It was the mass in which the sealers got entangled. All the cod have gone away, and some knowing cards attribute their departure to the unusual quantity of ice. It is said that fish were picked up dead, and that lumps of ice were found in their stomachs. It is supposed they swallowed the ice and died of cramp. Rounded Cape Buonavista and sighted an iceberg. Landed at Buona- vista, a large place in a port open to the westward. The town stands in a hollow, on vast terraced masses of glacial drift, consisting of gray clay, with large boulders of granite, black marble, and numerous other hard rocks ; many of these are scratched and polished. The rock of the country is sandstone ; the water-line is broken, and the boulder-clay undermined so as to leave a terrace. The coast is like beaches elsewhere, but worn and rubbed in spots. The hills are all rounded and of one pattern. No striated rocks were found in the town, and there was no time to search further. Steamed to King's Cove and anchored for the night. Passed an ice- berg aground below a house. The white mass con- trasted strangely with the green hills, corn-land, and white walls of the farm-house. Landed with a com- rade. This genius is wild about treasure-seeking. He pointed out several places where treasure is buried, and THE DIVINING-ROD. 57 told no end of stories about his adventures. He has a divining-rod, which is a great secret, for which many would give him large sums of money ; but he knows better than to tell them anything about it. A man who taught him the art of using it, proved the value of the article by finding a pose of silver. He put two pounds in silver in a handkerchief, and hid it in a bar- ren moor, < where no man would think of looking.' They went to the place, and the rod led the diviner to the very spot. According to the account of the narrator, he must have gone dancing about his pose like a hen part- ridge with a nest, while the operator prowled round and pretended to be dragged from his path by the rod. When they got close together, the man who hid the plunder pulled it out himself in a transport of joy ; the other sacked it, and he got the stick. An article in the Quar- terly Revievj, some years ago, attributed the phenomena of biology, table-turning, and mesmerism, to 'suggestion.' This is a case in point. An officer in the navy had given him some useful hints about making the engine ; in particular, he had told him to put mercury into it. Seeing me at work with various glasses and instruments, he attached himself to me, and we set off for a scramble. Walked to the tops of two hills, the highest in sight. One was a regular scramble over broken rocks, and 58 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. through very rough forest ground. Vegetation, berries, ferns, and small pines. The view was fine. On coming down Mr. spoke out ; ' Well now, this is the last time we shall be together ; you might as well tell a fellow how to make a divining-rod.' * Well/ said I, ' 111 tell you all I know about it, but it is all nonsense ;' and then I told him about the hazle rod, but the worthy man was not half pleased. He said that he knew a man who had found a great treasure lately. He had seen a bit of the very box in which it was stowed. But two fellows were beforehand with him. They went at night and took the treasure, thirty thousand pounds, with which they departed for the States. One bought a mill, and the other a farm, and they are both alive and flourishing. Found a man who spoke Gaelic, and reads a Gaelic bible ; and went to his house with a worthy missionary from Nova Scotia, who is bound for the Labrador. We had a sociable glass of cold spring water, and then wandered down to the fish-stage, where we sat admiring the beauty of the night. In the midst of our talk, a strange, low, wild, eldrich whimpering yell, like the howl of a wild beast, startled me. ' What's that V I said. ' Oh, it's only the dog,' said the Highlander. ' Do you know what he's at ? All the dogs here have something of the wolf in them, and at night they answer CANINE CUSTOMS. 59 one another, — listen.' Accordingly we listened, and from all sides of the still harbour there suddenly sprang an answer to the challenge of our dog ; it was a chorus of howling, yelling, and whimpering, which rose and fell and died away in the distance, to be taken up again by still more distant country dogs. With the singing of the mosquitoes, the ripple of the sea, and the still quiet of the night, it was a strange, wild scene. After a deal of shouting got a boat and went on board, and to bed. Every one has heard of Newfoundland clogs, and every- body wants to get one. They ought to be pretty large, quite black, with rough waving shiny hair, black roofs to their mouths, mild wise faces, and long tails, with a slight curl at the end. There is hardly a specimen of the pure breed left in the country, and the few that remain are prized. The small smooth black Labrador dog is not so much valued. Packs of cross-bred brutes of all sizes prowl about all these coast settlements. They feed on fish offal, and seem to be a highly independent com- munity. Venturing once to pat the head of a venerable brown shaggy dog, who looked like a fat, sleepy, good- natured bear, my hand got an ugly squeeze, which was followed by growling and grinning, and gnashing of teeth. Head and tail went down, and bristles went up, and the old brute looked perfectly savage and sulky as 60 AN AMERICAN TEAMP. long as we kept company. These dogs help the men to drag blnbber on the ice in sealing times, and fatten on dead seals. They are allies, not slaves or hired servants. Thursday 28. — Steamed to Green's Pond, passing- several large icebergs aground. The island is a broad tor about 180 feet high. There is very little soil on it, and that little is peat. The vegetation is arctic ; rein moss, Indian tea, crowberries, bake-apples, and snch like. The honses are perched upon weathered granite, all ground into one shape. Many houses are on separate rocks, and cannot be reached without a boat. At the end of the harbour is the churchyard — surely the strangest that man ever made. All the tombstones lean, except those which have fallen down. One records the age of a girl who died in 1808, and begs her parents to weep no more. It stands about three feet above the sea, and close to the edge of a peat bank. On looking over, there was the coffin in the sea, with the bones of the poor girl rol- ling about in it. The sea has encroached on the churchyard ; but the inhabitants do not seem to care, for their path from house to house skirts this grave, and the bones are visible to all who care to turn their heads. This looks as if this part of the coast were not rising but sinking. The churchyard, however, is still used, and it is said that coffins are scuttled and anchored A MARITIME CHURCHYARD. 61 with stones in peat graves which fill with sea-water as soon as they are made. The bog is the only soil on the island deep enough for a grave : there' is very little of it, and boats and vessels run their prows against the bank, and wear it aw T ay. Still the fact remains, that a peat- moss is partly submerged. Unless peat was washed down, this spot has sunk with the plants which grew in the rocky hollow. Stopped all day, as a fog came on, and the next bit of the voyage is dangerous. Walked about with sundry agreeable shipmates. Found a curious plant, Indian cup by name. It has a yellow flower like a waterlily, and the leaves are like small pitchers. These fill with water, and nourish the plant in dry weather. The root is said to be a cure for small-pox. Found a garden in which potatoes and pot- herbs were flourishing amongst a litter of cod-heads. The owner was fishing, but the wife did the honours of her cabin. Mne-tenths of these people seem to be Irish, and the accent of the whole colony is a decided brogue. Studied the rocks at the sea-level, and found them very smooth, but not striated. There is a wide sea-margin above high-water mark, upon which nothing grows, and no sea-weed grows on the rocks below water. There are no limpets, and very few shells of any kind. A few small whelks crawl about, and in chinks a few white 62 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. barnacles are to be found. It seems that bay-ice rubs everything from the stone ; but at a short distance from high-water mark, the rock is weathered. The trend of the island is N.W. magnetic. A more dreary desolate human camp it is hard to imagine ; but people live here all winter, and the shops make fortunes. Got some tea at a neat little house kept by a lady, who gave us tea with real cow's milk, dried caplin, fried ham and eggs. Some Indians from the interior, armed with bows and arrows, crossed to the settlement, and prowled about the houses and shops buying stores and drink. Unfortunately they departed before I saw them. A pretty little girl at one house had got a nest of young chickens in a box ; but they were Mother Carey's chickens, and she was feeding her pets with dainty bits of cod-liver. These strange little webfooted sea-swifts breed here in great numbers. This wild place corresponds nearly to the Scilly Isles, where cacti nourish, and geraniums grow to be hedges ten or twelve feet high. In winter the whole sea freezes ; sometimes the drift is hundreds of miles wide, and the sounds are roads. There is scarce a fragment of a shell on the beach on one shore, on the other is shell-sand. One great difficulty in exploring glacial drift is the ab- sence of shells ; if shells be so rare on the beach in this latitude now, their chance of preservation in old drift was SPORT IN CORNISH LATITUDES. 63 small. Future geologists may hunt for them in vain here, as geologists do now elsewhere. Friday, 29 — Air 48°, water 46°. — Sun shining, wind 1ST., 11 a.m. Steamed through a lot of reefs and small islands. Passed Cape Freels and the Wadhams, and ran into Fogo. This is a queer little harbour, with two entrances ; a heavy sea was running, and as we came out the vessel ran very near some nets. If the screw had caught, we should have been wrecked to a certainty, for a very heavy swell was setting us broadside on to the rocks. The people ran out to look at us. There is a low neck of rock here, and on it stria? were well enough marked to take a rubbing. Went to the top of a hill and found nothing but broken shattered sandstone rocks. Ean in to Toulinguet, and anchored for the night. Landed and went to a merchant's house, where a young agent entertained us with baccy and grog. About thirty sealing vessels were lost this year. In March, the whole spring fleet first tried to get outside the ice, and, failing, tried to work up inside of it. Off Tou- linguet, they were all jammed hard and fast. Fifteen hun- dred men used to walk ashore from their vessels, and they were quartered on the inhabitants. The place is neat and well built, and about it there is a great deal of cul- 64 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. tivation — potatoes and pot-herbs flourish. There are well-grown firs here and there ; and wild-roses, and such- like plants, show a tolerable climate. In latitude, the place corresponds to the Scilly Isles. The wood for the houses and stages is got from the head of the bay, about the Eiver of Exploits. Some of the logs were three feet round. A few years ago, great herds of seals came off this harbour, and many were killed. The men walked six to ten miles out to sea, and killed the seals with guns and clubs. The big ones are called ' harps,' and show fight ; the young ones are helpless. As soon as slain, the seals are flensed, and the blubber and skins of five or six are made into a package. Dogs and men are harnessed to this bundle, and the spoil is dragged home. Our host went out himself, and slew a lot of seals, with which he was proceeding on his homeward march, when a cry was raised of, ' Slip your seals and run.' The ice was opening. He stuck to his seals, but he presently came to an open lane of water. Others joined, and they broke off a piece of ice and ferried themselves across ; but there was another lane before them. Here another piece was freighted, but, this time, there was a man too many on board, and the ice-raft began to sink. There was a shout of ' Leap for your lives,' and one leapt into the water and swam. They all got safe to land at last, SLIP YOUR SEALS AND RUN. 65 but there were hundreds outside, and the whole sea was opening. It was a wild and fearful scene. Distracted women, on the shore, were shrieking and wringing their hands ; dogs were howling in all directions ; and men and dogs were struggling in the ice outside. A sudden change of wind drove the pack ashore again, and the men were saved — all but two, who perished. The ice breaks up here in June, sometimes in the end of July. The sea freezes to a thickness of eighteen inches in the harbour, but the pack and large bergs come drifting from the northward, and jam on this headland. One berg came in this year behind a hill, and the top was seen from the shore of the harbour. The hill is 270 feet high (by aneroid), so the berg must have been over 300 feet high. It broke up on the shore, and fell to pieces with a noise like thunder, or like the firing of heavy guns. A similar account of the death of an island of ice was given by an old man, at King's Cove. The water there is deep, and large bergs commonly drift to the mouth of the harbour. There they ground, and pour down streams of excellent pure fresh water. From time to time, the island starts and groans ; moves and changes its line of flotation. At last, with a final roar, it bursts asunder. Like a dying whale, it makes a great flurry, and then the fragments set off on separate cruises. How the people in 66 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. St. Heliers or Falmouth would stare if a tiling as big as the cliff at the end of Jersey or the Land's End were to sail in and explode there! After wandering about in the dark, for some time, got a boat, and went on board. Saturday 30— Air 48°, water 40°.— Off Little Belle- isle. Icebergs in sight when the temperature was taken, wind south ; long rollers from the north. Passed near a small berg, which rose about 40 feet out of water. Made a sketch, and got the pilot to steer close to it. It was perfectly clean, and looked like translucent white marble veined with Prussian blue. The vessel had hardly passed when one of these blue veins opened about a foot, and the berg slid so as to alter its line of notation. It made a loud, harsh, rattling sound, like near thunder, and rocked to and fro. Then it gave a second loud growl and settled. The captain shook his head, and said we were a great deal too near. This sound gave a better measure of the size than the look of the thing. It must have been 400 feet thick and 200 long. Passed many others of far larger size, but the captain gave them all a wide berth : some were guessed at 200 feet high, and they were cer- tainly 150 above water. Most of this day out of sight of land, or nearly so ; passed Belleisle in the straits in the night, and made Henly Harbour at 5 a.m. CHAPTEE V. THE LABRADOR. Sunday, 31— Air 42°, water 37°— 9 a.m, cold and cheer- less.— The first view of the Labrador coast is very like the west coast of Scotland ; for instance, the Sound of Mull without the high hills ; but one strange con- trast is the ice. Large masses were stranded every- where in the offing, and along shore. They looked pale and ghastly in the yellow morning light. There were patches of snow on the hills, and great wet pillows of mist laid on their sides and tops. These hills are not above three or four hundred feet high, and all of one round pattern, except a square hill of columnar basalt, beside Henly Harbour. Now, this place is about the latitude of London, the Bristol Channel, and the south of Ireland. The water is 37° in July ; at the other side it is never so cold, even in the dead of winter. The reason of the marked difference in vegetation is the climate. The climate results from the direction taken by the Arctic Current, which brings a flotilla of ice. It never ends. As fast 68 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. as one island of ice grounds and bursts, another takes its place, and in winter the whole strait is blocked up by a mass which swings bodily up and down, grating along the bottom at all depths. Bay-ice a few feet thick, pack-ice, and broken bergs of all sorts and sizes, with anchor-ice below, all moving bodily through a rocky channel, must work notable denudation at the bottom of the sea in this strait. Steamed on to Cape Charles. All the low rocks in the straits are rounded and smoothed, as if by the constant wear and tear of ice moved by the current. Many bergs were aground in the centre of the strait, and one seemed to contain stones, but it was too far off to make sure, even with the glass. Got to Cape Charles at 8.30, after passing Battle Harbour. The rocks are pink gneiss, or, perhaps, syenite, contorted, with dark slate interstratified. They are all rounded. There are very few shells at the water- line, very little sea-weed even in the most sheltered corners ; but though these harbours are all frozen every winter, the rocks at the water-line are not striated. Picked up a scratched stone on the beach. Lumps of ice, the fragments of broken icebergs, are everywhere, aground and afloat, in all depths ; but these big engines can only hit the rocks at the water-line where the coast is steep, and the coast shelves everywhere ; only thin FISHING-STAGES. 69 ice can touch the water-line at present. About 400 inhabitants are scattered about here during the summer. Their houses are mere wooden camps perched upon rocks. A few men stay all winter. The fishing-stages are long piers made of small fir-poles, and reach out into deep water, where boats can come to the end. The waves wash through the piles, and the floor of the stage is made of round poles, between which the water shines. A roof of poles, with fir-branches for thatch, covers the whole, and there is little provision for light. On this dark stage the fish are landed from the boats with pitch-forks, which are stuck into them as Highlanders fork peats. After the fish are cleaned, split, and salted, they are dried on " flakes." Made Hurray's Harbour at noon. This harbour was blocked with ice on the 20th of July. The water-line is rubbed, and in some places striated. The beach consists of broken stones, and seems to differ in no respect from like beaches else- where. Many rocks are shattered as rocks are by waves alone, but all points are ground off within the influence of the ice. In this respect this beach differs from the other side. Some of the bergs had curious shapes in this neighbourhood. When their ways were better known these shapes were easily explained. Granite veins abound in the rock. 70 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. St Francis' Harbour, at 2 p.m. — This is a small hole amongst the rocks, with a merchant's establishment and salmon-fishery attached. They are now catching about fifty a day, and complain that they are doing very ill. They have caught as many as 800 in a day. There is a river about thirty miles up the country at the head of a bay. These fish are working along the coast, and they are caught in a bag-net. The river is said to ave- rage a quarter of a mile in breadth. There are long still reaches, then a portage, and more still reaches. But it is very difficult to get anything like certain informa- tion, and no chart of Labrador is worth anything. Landed with two chums. A fog had come on, and the captain said he would stay all night ; so we walked over a hill, and called at several houses to seek shelter from passing showers. One belonged to a hearty old native of Dorsetshire, who offered us tea, and all manner of luxuries. He said that he had once started from St. John's for Carbonere in a small vessel, with a cargo of rum, and a barrel and a half of water on board. It came on to blow from the westward, and they were blown off to sea. The first land they made was Fal- mouth, and there the whole country came to see them and their tiny vessel. The custom-house officers came on board, and they made them all roaring drunk with ST. FRANCIS' HARBOUR. 71 the rum. He cut that ship and went up the Mediter- ranean, and now he has squatted here with his wife and family. They fish in summer, and in winter go up to the head of the bay lumbering. Fell in with an Indian, a half-breed, and an Englishman, who work the salmon- nets. Two of them had never seen a steamer, so we asked them to come on board, and fed them on tea and bread and butter. They described the interior of the country, which they frequent in winter, furring and shooting deer. It is well wooded ; the trees are large and well-grown. The old sailor had said, ' There be trees there if you take a chalk in each hand and mark, you won't get more than half round.' Twelve feet round, is four feet through. There were plenty at 'the room' a foot through, but none of this size. In these woods the 'furrers' set their traps. 'It's awful work, sir/ said the Englishman. ' It's no use saying, This is a bad day : we won't travel. Travel you must, and the cold is fit to burn you. You have to carry all you want ; and what with gun, and axe, and grub, and skins, it's a heavy back-load. It's a hard life, sir.' The Indian was an Esquimaux— a little, broad, fat fellow. The half-breed had a mountaineer for mother, and he was very good-looking, dark, with a hooked nose and marked eyebrows. He had the bearing of a gentle- 72 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. man, the absence of restraint and awkwardness — an instinct which told him how to avoid vulgarity or coarseness. How many a man who ranks him- self a gentleman is but a spoiled savage, with his loud, rough, vulgar polish of town vice. The great fur prize is a black fox, worth £20 here, but the Indian had never seen one. The next prize is a silver fox, worth £15 to £20. These also are rare, but they can be got occasionally. Black, silver, and red may occur in one litter. The rocks are contorted gneiss, with many quartz veins. The hill-tops are all rounded and much w T eathered, so much that it is not possible to make out the direction of glaciation. The water-line is much rubbed ; smooth, but not striated. There are few perched blocks at this place. The highest hills are about 400 or 500 feet high. The coast is a maze of lochs and islands, arms of the sea running in amongst the hills in every possible direction ; there seems to be no symmetrical denudation. Icebergs are everywhere: a procession of large ones is passing outside. These break up, and the bits are carried in by wind and tide. These bits in their turn ground and break, and the little bits drift into the bays. A large block was hard and fast, close to a steep rock at the entrance of the harbour. It was far larger than the hull of a first-rate, and ST. FRANCIS' HARBOUR. 73 the size under water was nine times as great. From this mass, fragments as large as ships' boats had fallen, and some dozens of bits as big as hogsheads were bobbing about in the land-wash close to the wharf. In the harbours to which we walked were bergs peering over the hills and low points. According to a man who lived in a small hut beside which one of these bergs had stranded, it had turned over several times, and dropped a load of stones where it lay. Sketched this one, but could not detect a symptom of a stone or a grain of sand in the ice. It was easy to trace various water-lines on the sides of the berg. The mosquitos would not let me sketch ; it came on to rain, and then the sun came out, and shone right in my eyes. Found another berg aground close to the rocks. Levelled the top with a spirit-level, and measured the height with the aneroid; made it 45 feet from the water-line. This was a peaked berg, and a mere baby to many which we have seen. It was aground, and the fishermen said there was from 15 to 20 fathoms (90 to 120 feet) at the place (120 below and 45 above = 165 feet of ice). There is then a powerful engine at work here, and its marks are seen even at the water-line. Ten days ago men were walking on ice in these bays, and now that the bay-ice has disappeared, the broken bergs have come in. 74 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. The bay-ice works at the water-line ; the bergs in deeper water, where they are driven by the tide. The soil is a brown peat, very thin. The vegetation like Scandina- vian ; but gray mosses and lichens are not very abun- dant. Birds are scarce : no game was seen all day. In the bottoms of the bays, away from the cold stream, trees are ' 100 feet high.' The soil is deep and free of stones : turnips grow well, but * the mosquitos are so thick that you can't see through them.' In winter, the snow is ' 6 feet deep in the woods straight up and down ; and 40, aye 50 feet deep in drifts and gullies.' So say the inhabitants. The latitude agrees nearly with that of Cardigan Bay, Waterford, Yarmouth, and such-like places in the old country ; and the climate evidently results from the cold stream which flows down the coast. The air is now far warmer than the water below it, and the temperature rises immediately on leaving the coast. The immediate coast-line is bleak and barren; the sheltered bottoms inshore are well wooded and com- paratively fertile. August 1, 1864 — Monday, 9 a.m. — Air 47°, water 37°. — Started early. Fine, northerly wind, and clear weather. Coast bold and rocky, with hills rising 500 or 600 feet. About Cape Bluff, patches LABRADOR COAST. 75 of snow were low down on the hills, within 100 feet of the sea. Called at Venison Tickle. On Thursday fortnight people crossed this sound on ice. The captain was in a desperate hurry, dropping the letter-bags into fishing-boats, and stopping nowhere. Watched the rocks with a telescope, and failed to make out striae any- where; but the water-line is everywhere rubbed smooth, and the rocks for a considerable height are perfectly bare. No sea-ware, no shells, no limpets, nothing but a few barnacles in clefts. The fishing is bad, but improv- ing since the ice departed. A theory that ice has driven the fish off the coast prevails here also. At 9.30 the land- scape was magnificent ; to seawards five enormous bergs loomed like islands through a haze ; they looked like familiar stacks and islands in the old country — the Bass, Ailsa, and such-like. The sun shone brilliantly in a blue sky streaked with fleecy clouds. In the fore- ground were great masses of old green rotten arctic ice, all water-worn ; landward was a rough iron-bound coast, with small bergs dotted about close under the hills, and far up in the fjords ; and these sparkled and glit- tered at the water's edge like Pentelic marble. It is very difficult to get a measure of these large distant bergs. A small vessel passed about half-way to one of them. The apparent height was about thrice that of the vessel, 76 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. distant about three miles. The mast being about 80 feet high, the berg must have been over 300. The steamer going six miles an hour in one direction, and the vessel going about the same in the other, we took two minutes to clear the berg on the horizon. Judging by hills at about the same distance, the berg must have been fully 300 feet high, and perhaps 900 long : at one- ninth out of water, it was 3000 feet thick ; and yet old hands said it was small to bergs which are seen here in the spring. At 10.30 dropped letters at Seal Islands, and during the pause watched a small bit of ice polish- ing a stone. It seemed about the size of a hogshead, and it was resting aground in a small bay. The waves rocked it slowly like a white cradle, and it seemed to rub against a large round stone in the land-wash. This polishing movement could never produce striation, and no strise are to be seen at the land-wash in these sounds, or on open sea-coasts near the present water-line. It is sufficiently evident that glacial strise are not produced by thin bay-ice, but the tool-marks of this part of the engine are everywhere conspicuous in the rounded form of the stone. Striae must be made in deep water, by the large masses which seem to pursue the even tenor of their way in the steady current which flows down the coast. It here moves at a rate of from two to three UPHEAVAL OF LABRADOR. 77 knots, fastest in spring and fall, and it moves south-east. It is remarkable that up to this time we have only seen a few doubtful stones on bergs which we have passed. They are all worn, and from their numerous water-lines at all angles they have all been capsized, or they have heeled so far as to capsize any loose deck-load, such as a moraine, but fellow-passengers have seen stones frozen into bergs, though we have seen none to be sure of so far. All along this voyage it has been said that the land is rising. The banks of Newfoundland are said to be getting shoaler. At Bay Eoberts, in Conception Bay, according to a gentleman who lives there, a rock which was barely awash when he was a boy — say twenty years ago — is now far out of water. It was marked in 1822, and in 1854 it had risen 42 inches (32 years at li per year). At King's Cove noticed a raised beach or bar, which first called my attention to the fact. There was a small fresh-water lake behind it, and it was manifest sea-work about 18 feet higher than the sea-level. Houses and stages were built on it. Asked an old man if the waves ever came over it in storms. Answer, * Never.' At Fogo, asked a man, who was mending his nets, if he had noticed any change in the sea-level. ' Yes,' he said ; * I have. The harbour rock there used to be very 78 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. rarely seen at low water spring-tides. It is now so much out of water that you might build a room upon it.' It is a broad flat rock, and it was two feet out of water when the steamer passed outwards. A merchant, who was with us, pointed out a fresh-water marsh, and said that they used to catch sea-fish in it not very long ago. At Toulinguet the church is built upon a raised beach of rolled stones. Near the Eiver of Exploits, recent sea-shells occur in a raised beach. At St. Francis' Harbour, asked a man, who has worked the salmon-nets for fifteen years, if he had noticed any change. * Well,' said he, ' fifteen years ago, my boat used just to ground at the end of the stage at low water, with the nets in her. Now she grounds when empty, and that's a solid rock. There is a difference of a foot at least.' Say an inch a year, and that comes near the measured rate at Bay Eoberts. Further north, at Holton Harbour, a man had no- ticed that the bay had got shoaler ; but it was a sandy bay, and he thought the sand had drifted in. Thus, for a distance of 600 miles, the coast-line is rising about an inch a year. Of former rising, there is abundant evidence in terraces and raised beaches. At LAND RISING. 79 this rate of rising, all the hill-tops were awash not long ago, and in deep water at some time or other. It is on the hill-tops that marks of glaciation by large bergs ought to be found. August 1. — At 2, passed Bateaux, a settlement amongst a lot of islands. Men were catching fish close to the rocks. One was working four lines at once. At 3 passed Domino. A great many boats fishing, but catching few. The wind cold ; a few deep snowdrifts close to the sea. These islands are about 200 feet high, and rounded ; the rocks veined with pink granite. Ean in to Indian Island, and anchored for the night, 5 p.m. It is about the latitude of Westport and Drogheda, Pres- ton and Hull. It is at a corner in the coast, and if the hill-tops were sunk deep enough, they would be in the run of the large bergs. Landed, and set off for a walk. The low grounds are covered with a terrace of boulders, on which are pools and bogs. The highest hill is of black igneous rock, 400 feet high, and on it are stones which look like beach-stones. No shells were found. The whole of the high grounds are roches moutonnees, but much weathered. Numerous large blocks of light- coloured granite were perched on the tops, and strewed about in the lee of the dark black rocks. Striae were made out here ; direction, N. 35° W. magnetic, or nearly N. 80 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. 2 E. true. Twenty-two bergs were counted from this top ; the largest, far out at sea, moving southwards. One of the blocks of granite measured 6X5X4 feet. Another, of very coarse granite, gray, with large crystals of fel- spar, was twelve feet long. The rock on which these blocks were perched is a kind of hornblende (?), of which a specimen was taken. Made a sketch at 135 feet. The prevailing wind, as shown by scrubby bushes of spruce, growing like juniper, is N. 22° E. mag., or K 62° E. true. Numerous deep snowdrifts were lodged on the sheltered or south-west side of these hills. The lookout from the top of this island was a wide one ; no higher ground was in sight. Far as the eye could reach, on a fine evening, the same rolling sea of low rocky hillocks and ridges extended landwards to the blue horizon, with gleaming sea-lochs and fresh-water lakes shining like polished mirrors set in a granite frame. There could be no higher hill in that direction for 50 miles at least. Three parts of the circle were bounded by a sea-horizon, studded only with islands of ice. The striae on the rocks under foot, and the axis of the island, aimed north. The perched blocks stranded on the hill-top might have come from any distant place in that direction ; at all events they were wholly foreign to the black glittering igneous saddleback on which they DENUDING ENGINES. 81 rode in long procession. How came they to the top of the highest point of a promontory, tlrrast out into a circle bounded only by the horizon ? Seated beside them, and looking out on this arctic landscape, near the latitude of Wales, the answer appeared to be clearly given. Though no bergs, with stones on them or in them, have been approached during this voyage, many on board the 'Ariel' have been close to bergs heavily laden. Mr. Drysdale states that, a few years ago, a large island of ice drifted into Conception Bay, in Newfound- land, and ran aground there. It was covered with large stones, which lay on the ice ; it broke up in deep water, and dropped the load. A large berg was seen by Mr. M 'Donald, somewhere off St. John's, with a very large stone frozen into it. The bay-ice continually picks up stones about the water-line in winter. The main cur- rent which carries all this ice moves southwards, and trends westwards, hugging the coast ; but every pro- montory turns it eastwards, off the land, and makes an eddy in the lee. In winter anchor-ice forms at the bottom, even in deep water ; it must also form about the base of stranded bergs, and these may thus gather heaps of gravel, sand, and stones. .When bergs turn over they often lift stones, according to the fishermen. G 82 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. In deep water, high points only are touched by the base of heavy bergs of the largest size ; but bergs of all di- mensions fit shallower water. If any point rises towards the surface, high enough to escape the bergs alto- gether, it is then washed by waves in summer and attacked by rafts of bay-ice in winter. This part of the engine carries everything portable from the rock. If a rivulet has managed to build a small delta of sand dur- ing the summer, it turns to stone and gets fast to the end of a raft of sea-ice in winter. On a coast-line of some hundreds of miles there is scarcely a sandy beach. On a sea-bottom rising through a sea affected by such a climate, no stones could remain but blocks of large size, able to resist waves and bay-ice. Accordingly, on these island hills few patches of gravel remain, but large stones were seen on every hill-top that came within range of a powerful telescope throughout the voyage. Rocks awash and rising are touched by heavy bergs on the sides only. Many rocks were seen in this condition, awash with stranded bergs around. But if a whole tract of country ground down to one general level, and fifty miles wide, is rising to the surface bodily, the main current is thereby turned, and the action of ice islands transferred to deeper water at once. If glacial striae be marks of sea-ice, they ought to coincide with the direc- THEIR MARKS. 83 tion which the current would follow if the place were submerged. Here the striae do point up stream. If this country were submerged and rising, the current would flow over this island in the direction of the striae found on the hill-top; and small bergs would touch the hill-sides after the top had risen, as small bergs touch the sides of rocks in the sound ; finally, rafts of bay-ice might gather and drop, and pack in flat layers, the terrace of large boulders, which rests on the shore side of the scored rock, as bay-ice now packs the beach. If this land goes on rising, the sound through which vessels and small bergs now sail and drift will become a terraced isthmus of drift, crossing the run of the stream, joining a peninsula of glaciated rock to a rolling country of like nature. In Scandinavia and in Scotland similar forms abound at high levels. It is a case of 'crag-and-tail/ but in this case the tail crosses the stream. Where the sea has full swing and the rock is brittle, this coast-line breaks into cliffs ; but these are exceptions. The top of the country is very like the top of Dartmoor and Cornwall; the edge of it, as a rule, is unlike the broken water-line of the British coast. The cause is the climate, which results from the course now followed by the Arctic Current. Because a stream of cold water now passes along a rising coast, waves 84 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. only beat upon it in summer. In winter it is protected by a breakwater of ice ; so cliffs are rare. But the floating breakwater is a moving engine which saws rock whenever it moves : the edge of it is armed with the stone-dust which it wears off, and picks up every frost, and the mark of it is conspicuous in the Bay of Fundy, at Cape Breton, and on harder rocks along the coast of Labrador at many exposed spots. In shel- tered nooks ice forms and melts, rises and falls, and does not even stir the legs of fish-stages. Looking out then from this advanced post, part of a great denuding engine was seen at work. On the horizon were bergs of the largest size, probably 2000 feet from base to crest, moving steadily southwards at a rate of two or three knots ; nearer in were smaller bergs in the eddy- some moving, some aground. Still nearer were smaller islands of ice, 40 feet out of water, and aground amongst the islands ; and in the sound were a shoal of ' growlers' as big as sloops and boats and casks, bob- bing in the waves, and all moving one way with the stream, against the wind. Surely the spoor of the Arctic Current was under foot, and surely the stones at the shore-line and at the base of the hill were the chips of the engine which ground the flat rocky country on the western horizon. THE ARCTIC CURRENT. 85 But the movements of solitary icebergs at this parti- cular season appear to be too erratic to account for glacial striae which keep one general direction over whole tracts of country. Floating hills, even though 2000 feet thick, must give way to fixed rocks, and turn aside ; but strise often run over considerable hills. The engine here working appears to be the only one in existence able to do such heavy work. The spring and winter drift has passed down this coast for countless ages. This year it was one vast solid raft of floes and bergs. It was more than 150 miles wide, perhaps 3000 feet thick at spots, for some bergs were 300 feet high ; it was probably more than 300 miles long. It has been driven by a whole current bodily over one definite course, year after year, ever since this land was found. Nobody sees it in winter, so no one knows its full power ; but the sealers who work their perilous trade about the broken edges of the shattered mass, in spring, know to their cost how terrible is the march of this marble country of hill and plain, which grows together and breaks up into scattered mountains every year. If Ireland were shaved off at the sea-level, turned upside down, and set afloat in a shallow sea, the highest mountains would about equal the dimensions of the largest bergs, and the area would not exceed that of 86 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. the ice-drift which passed from Cape Harrison to Cape Eace in 1864. Islands of ice, with bases of frozen drift, hemmed in by such a mass, driven on by a whole sea, moving at two or three miles an hour, seem to be engines of greater power than any glacier yet seen or described, and amply sufficient to account for European glaciation in similar latitudes. Like an army advanc- ing in line, each part of the raft must take a line and keep it ; when the mass joins. The spoor of this current must be a wide one, with a general direction, and a depth equal to that of the largest bergs. Off this coast it may extend 3000 feet below the present sea-level, and 300 miles from the coast, with a general direction from N.W. to S.E. The stream begins at Spitzbergen, lat. 80°, and ends about lat. 36°, and its general direction is from N.E. to S.W., wherever land does not turn the stream. Tried to return by the shore, and stuck fast in a cliff. Scrambled up again, and got down on the other side at a place where a boat was hauling caplin. They shot a seine in a rocky bay, and hauled it into the boat. They ladled the fish out of the bag with a landing-net, and got a vast haul. Another fellow was heaving a casting- net, and got a great many amongst the stones. These little fish come to land in myriads. They go in shoals CAPLIN. 87 of males and females. One haul will hardly produce a female ; another boat will be loaded with females only. They run ashore to spawn, and it is said that two males and one female run side by side to land, the males helping to press the spawn from their mate. This is commonly asserted by soi-disaut eyewitnesses. Joined company with a small imp of a boy about twelve years old, who had been fishing all day, and had all the bear- ing of an experienced old man. He asked us to come in to the house where he lived, and when I gave him a quid of baccy he stuck it into his cheek, and began to chew with all his might. Picked up several chalk- flints, with chalk adhering to them. They looked strange in this land of primitive rocks. Went to the house of Mr. Warren, who keeps a register of tempera- ture, and a journal, and who lectures on Labrador. He says that in winter the temperature is sometimes -37°, and varies from 70° to 18° within twenty-four hours. His glass is placed against the southern wall of the house. At the bottom of Sandwich Bay, turnips and potatoes grow well, but cucumbers will not. On the islands nothing grows. They keep a few sheep and goats, and some cows, but these are brought in the ves- sels in spring, and are slaughtered and eaten in the fall. Here are some quotations from Mr. Warren's «8 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. journal for 1864, which was kindly placed at my dis- posal : — Monday, June 11th. — Ice coming in again. 14th. — Cove and harbour full of ice. Between the pieces of ice the water froze so hard, that the seal-boats in the morning with great difficulty forced their way through. Keen wind. 16th. — Thermometer in shade 68°, 9 a.m. ; 95° noon. 28th. — Iceberg grounded in cove, and broke up, having capsized. The journal chiefly relates to fishing, which was ' very bad indeed' at first, and to the behaviour of the men, one of whom seemed to be continually ' drunk and abusive ' — a state by no means rare in these re- gions. About 1000 sail passed this station, according to Mr. Warren ; one of these, a Yankee yacht, has gone north, and means to get as far as possible. Went to see the splitting process. It was a strange scene. The stage, a long low building of fir poles and branches, is perched on the rocks, so as to project over the sea. It is like a long windowless house on a wooden pier. In this long room a number of double-beaked tin lamps hung flaring from the roof. The day's take — per- haps 1500 fish to a boat — had been thrown up with pitch- forks and lay in a heap at the sea end, where there is a SPLITTING COD. 89 double door for the boats. At the word ' Fish up/ a shower of cod-fish was thrown from the heap upon a table, where stood a mermaiden clad in sailcloth, and covered with blood and slime. Seizing a fish by the ' skruff' of the neck, she stuck a long knife into his inno- cent dead throat, and at one slice she ripped him up from stem to stern. A turn of the wrist and the fish slid to a dark-browed dame called the "header," who tore his inside out, broke his neck, and twisted his head off. The body slid over to the splitter, an old rough bearded, brown-faced, gory mariner ; the head and offal slipped through a hole into the sea, and the fat liver fell with a soft oily plump through another trap-door into a vat. Seizing the head- less trunk with his left hand, one long tearing slice by the splitter cleared the backbone on one side, and then with a flourish of the knife a second slice from tail to head cleared it out, and down it went through the table, after the head, into the sea, plump. The split body slid off the table into a wheel-barrow, and by that time a second headless trunk was ready to be boned. In one minute 7 bones were cut out by one artist, another extracted 9, and a third 10 ; three gangs at this rate split 1500 fish in an hour at one stage alone. The barrow when filled was wheeled along a plank, and the load stacked, back downwards, with layers of salt shovelled over each bed 90 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. of fish. After about ten days the salt-fish formation is quarried, and laid out on stages made of branches and poles, called flakes, and on beaches of dry stones rudely arranged. In the fall they are sent home 'green/ to be cured and dried on flakes at St. John's and elsewhere. In rainy weather the green fish are piled and thatched with bark and old sails. After this bloody exhibition, stumbled over the poles, through the piles of slain, and went through another stage to the boat and on board. August 2. — Crossing Hamilton Inlet, about the same latitude as the Isle of Man— Air 42°, water 37°.— Passing through a scattered fleet of broken bergs with fresh fractures and strange shapes. One was like a marble monument with a gigantic figure laid out on the top, and a leopard's head looking out to the sea at the end. This strange sculpture of wind and weather was 40 feet high at least. Another was like a giant bust of the Duke of Wellington, 50 feet high ; in five minutes it had changed into a tall obelisk over- hanging its base. Another was like a couchant hind. The glassy sea was dotted with these strange white marble edifices, telling sharply against low blue hills and distant islands ; and here and there a dark round black rock peered above the water like a sleeping whale. It was a strange wild landscape, and very beautiful in its DWARF FORESTS. 91 own peculiar way. Ean into Indian Harbour, and then, after visiting Mr. Norman, and jawing cod-fish for half an hour, got a pilot. Steamed on to Holton Harbour, and anchored for the night, having sighted Cape Harrison. Landed and walked up the country. Found a series of bogs and low round rocks, a shallow sea, and large stones everywhere. The vegetation is peculiar : the forest con- sists of a stunted scrub of spruce, betula nana, juniper, etc., cut over by the wind. It is sometimes less than a foot high, and spread so that it is easy to walk on the tree-tops; it is sometimes six feet high with thick seems. In other respects the country was very like Hammerfest. The prevailing wind is KW. M fished in a lake, and hooked a char. At night the sky burned with a mag- nificent aurora. It seemed to rise from a point on the horizon towards the magnetic north, as from a volcano, up to the zenith ; and it streamed southwards, wavering- like a great downy golden feather of yellow fire. Our Indian Island pilot came into our berth to sleep. The missionary cross-questioned him for a full hour, while the rest of the inhabitants dropped sleepy remarks plump into the conversation, and the old pilot snored like a south-west storm. This pilot speaks Esquimaux as well as English. He did speak the French language, but now he mixes it with Indian. At the head of Ha- 92 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. milton Inlet, about 150 miles up, is a large 'room' (that is to say, house), and a station of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. The Indians cross the country in about a fortnight, to Musquarra, near Anticosti, where is another station. The route is a canoe-route. Each man carries a blanket and a * stand-by ' — to wit, some food. They hunt, by the way, deer and partridges. There is a settlement in the inlet. The man has been here for fifteen years, but he has never been up to the end. The missionary's list of animals inluded lemen and marmot (whistler), white owls, and no end of birds and beasts. At a short dis- tance from the sea-coast, the country is hilly, wooded, and marshy. Trees grow to be ' three feet through.' There are pines, 'aps,' and birch, but no hardwood. The hills are very rocky. There are a great many mountaineer Indians, who work for the Hudson's Bay Company. They are tall well-made men, unlike the Esquimaux, who are short, broad, squat, brown, and fat. Most of them read and write. So the interior, beyond the influence of the cold current, has a different climate, and a vegetation less arctic and weatherbeaten. On the 24th of July, the mouth of Hamilton Inlet, latitude of Donegal and Morecombe Bay, was full of heavy drift, ' pan-ice.' The outer limit of it could not be seen HAMILTON INLET. 93 from the highest hills. On the 1st of August no clear water was visible, except inside the islands, and this day the inner edge was still visible, while the ice-blink in the sky marked the place where the pack had gone. Outside of Holton Harbour, and to the north of the Esquimaux Islands, large bergs were seen at sea. Below the islands small broken bergs only were seen ; but many were aground, and some in contact with the rocks. It seems that the ice here works south and westwards, and is broken and shot off eastwards at corners. In the lee of capes and clusters of islands, small bergs abounded in the eddies ; but the large ones were at sea, on the weather side or far off. The effect of this heavy ice on the water- line is here conspicuous. A berg, about 40 feet out of water, was aground, at the back of one steep island. It seemed to have taken the form of the rocks, against which it was ground by a heavy swell. The ice was actually rubbing the stone for that height above water, and for 400 feet under it. It was moved by all the power of an Atlantic wave. Along the whole coast, for a height of from 40 to 50 feet, an irregular zone of rock is thus scoured bright and smooth. No seaweed is at the water-line; no lichen colours the rock near it. It is raw stone, smoothed and ground. Higher up, a stunted vegetation begins suddenly, but luxuriantly. 94 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. The stone is blackened with lichens, and hollows are filled with peat, covered with cloudberry, crowberry, rhododendron, and Indian tea, as thickly as a Highland moor is clad with heather. Gray reindeer moss makes a soft carpet for the feet, and hides the soil, which is the debris of this arctic vegetation. For a height of 50 feet, the rocks are polished by the ice-foot, and by frag- ments of small bergs ; beyond the actual mechanical wearing of ice, the vegetation is nipped by the cold ; but beyond the immediate influence of the cold stream, the vegetation struggles with the cold, and successfully. The climate of lat. 71° is carried to 55° at Cape Harrison, and to 47° near St. John's, and 45° near Halifax ; but inland, the cold breath of the Arctic Current fails to blight, and the sun's rays have power enough to force the earth to wear a coat of shrubs and a cloak of forest trees. At Hamilton Inlet trees grow to a large size ; at Colinet, in Newfoundland, the climate is better than it is at Holyrood, 30 miles away, for trees are twice the size ; at Windsor, in Nova Scotia, the western fields are worthy of the old country ; at Halifax, 40 miles off, the eastern forests look like Sweden, and the land has * too much bare bone' for farming. At Washington pines grow near the coast. In the same latitudes in the central district, no pines grow in MODERN GLACIAL PERIODS. 95 the forests of Ohio and Kentucky. The same thing is re- peated everywhere on the Atlantic coast. Wherever the Arctic Current flows, it carries an arctic climate. Wherever the Equatorial Current lands, it carries heat. Cape Harrison is in lat. 54°, and therefore corresponds to Achil Head, Carlingford Bay, the Calf of Man, Lan- caster, York, and Flamborough Head. An arctic cur- rent may explain glacial phenomena in these regions. Cape Eace is about the latitude of La Eochelle, in France. One is a sunny fertile land ; the other is only fertilised with fish-offal, and scarce got a glimpse of the sun in 1864 August 3— Air 42°, water 37°.— Line day, KW. wind, bright sun, and clear sky. Passing southwards across the mouths of Hamilton Inlet and Sandwich Bays. At 11.30, off Partridge Harbour, a small nook crammed with fore-and-afters going north with salt to fetch fish. The Mealy Mountains, the highest land yet seen, were in sight to the westward. The range seemed to be about 1500 feet high, and a few patches of old snow were dotted about. At about 10 or 15 miles from the coast the low hills are covered with trees. The whole coast is a maze of rocky islands set in a blue sea studded with broken white bergs. At any moment a dozen or more could be seen from the deck ; many of 96 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. these were stranded on rocks ; and they were scattered in clusters where large bergs had newly broken up. The shapes were fantastic in the extreme ; the new fractures angular, like white sugar ; old water-lines rounded and smooth, and pitched at every possible angle. Stopped at Pack Island. The rocks are about 180 feet high, and consist of a black hornblende (?) which weathers easily. No striae could be found at the top ; but the water-line in a narrow sound was polished and striated in the direction of the sound about KKW. This seems to be fresh work, done by heavy ice drifting from Sandwich Bay ; but, on the other hand, stages, with their legs in the sea and resting on these very rocks, are not swept away by this ice. If this be old work, done by extinct glaciers, bred upon the Mealy Mountains, then the sea protects the old work, and the air destroys it. Ther- mometer on shore, 62° at noon, and the sun very hot on the rocks. The captain took it into his head to start an hour before his time, and having started, to make our boat row half a mile in his wake. General growl from those who wanted to go and those who wanted punctuality. At 4, stopped at Long Island. Went to the top. The sand is decomposed granite ; ripple-marked by the wind ; the prevailing wind N., magnetic — say KE. The rock is light-coloured granite, LONG ISLAND. 97 with lumps of dark mica-schist enclosed. Thermometer, 70° on the rocks ; 60° on the hill-top ; mosquitos abun- dant and bloodthirsty. The rocks at the water-line are all smoothed and ground, the tops rubbed off horizontally. As the land is rising, this form is the result of marine glacial denudation. Passed a berg near Greedy Harbour, and when the busy and thirsty crowd had landed, went with two chums to see it. It was aground in 90 feet of water (1 5 fathoms), the height was about 18 feet, and the shape out of water very irregular. A progeny of small ' growlers' were bobbing about near the parent berg. Got alongside one and tried to capsize him, but he was too much for us. The surface was barely a foot out of water, and the mass was larger than our boat. The proportion of ice above and below was about as much as if the boat were floating on end, with a square yard of the bow out of water. Broke off a lot of ice, and with great trouble hauled about a cart-load into the boat. It was like glacier-ice, full of hollows and bubbles, and very hard and cold. When melted the water was good to drink. Cut out a cube and floated it in a tumbler of salt water, and carefully measured the depth and height with a pair of compasses and a fine scale. The proportion was 9 H 98 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. below to 1 above. The mass visible is therefore one- tenth of the whole mass. A cubical berg 300 feet high is 3000 feet thick ; but peaked, prismatic, pyramidal, and jagged bits may be far higher than this visible proportion, which depends on the mass and its shape. Many people on board assert that ice occasionally sinks. Off St. John's, and far south, one man was in a perfect jam of pan-ice when he went to bed. In the morning not a morsel of ice was to be seen anywhere, and the watch said that they had seen the ice founder. If a jam of rotten ice breaking in water at 37°, came sud- denly into water at 69° or 70°, which is the temperature in the Gulf Stream at the tail of the banks, it might well crumble and melt in a few hours without sinking bodily. Green says that he has seen ice go down beside a wharf. Many others assert that bergs founder and sink. We had hardly left this berg when it gave a loud roar, and sank considerably, but it was much worn and split, and it only slid down and took a new position. If it fell on a point of rock it must have smashed it. A strong tide ran in the sound, and this great mass must have pushed with great force upon rocks and stones at the bottom. It was but a small fragment, but it was as big as a large warehouse. Greedy Harbour earned its name that night : thirst was LARGE BERGS. 99 quenched. A noisy stoker was thrust into the coal- hole, where he cursed himself to sleep. The missionary put his head out of bed and said mildly, ' Is not that most awful ! Did you ever see such a disgraceful scene in your life, sir ?' I never did, and that's a fact. August 4. — Fine day, N.W., strong breeze. The bergs sketched on the way up are in the same positions. Many of them are aground ten and fifteen miles from the shore, but some have departed. The force which worked on these rocks is the pressure of a whole current of three or four knots upon the area of ice submerged, perhaps 2000 feet square. Landed again at Indian Island. Looking to the places which were visited on the way north, evidence of the rise of land is plain. Close to the water's edge are raised beaches of boulders, and they have a definite shape. Terraces of erosion, though very much weathered, are also seen high up, and the shape of the land at the old sea-level is that of rocks awash and under water. On the top are perched blocks, where they must have been dropped. Terraces generally are not so well marked as in Scandinavia. Stop at American Tickle, a small island with a sound full of vessels. Eock, pink gneiss or syenite, with bits of blue gray micaceous schist altered and 100 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. inclosed. A raised beach is near the sea. A good- sized berg was aground close to the rocks. Beaches on this coast are rare : they are short, and rest in hollows in the rock, and they consist of very large stones of many kinds. In low islands these beaches do not occur near the tops. In higher islands they seem to occur here and there at nearly the same distance below the top, and they recur elsewhere at a short distance above the sea, forming narrow necks of boggy land, points, bars, terraces, and occasionally an isthmus. They seem to be deposits made in deep water, and preserved only in spots which were partially sheltered from heavy seas when the land was rising. Friday, August 5. — Warm southerly wind, bright sun, mosquitos in clouds. They came on board at the harbours, and took their passage and meals on board, paying with a fine nasal performance on the horn. Called at several ports. At Hawkes Harbour is an isthmus of boulders and a raised beach. Bergs seen on the way north are in the same position with reference to each other and the land ; so these are aground. Some of the most distant have departed, so they were afloat. The water-lines have changed in many cases, so the whole have moved and worked on the sea-bottom. Many of these, at the rate of J-^} water, must be as ICE-CLOUDS. 101 large as Arthur's Seat. One was fully 250 feet high, and if squared, it would still be fully 100. At the measured rate it may have been 900 feet deep. It was in contact with a rock nearly awash. Here is a hill of ice beat- ing upon the side of a submerged hill of rock, and driven by the whole force of the stream which carried the rest away ; and in spring and whiter the force of a raft of ice hundreds of miles wide is added. Near Venison Tickle — air 60°, water 44°. To seaward were banks and masses of cloud and low fog. These had a definite shape, and lay in the direction which the bergs must have fol- lowed when they drifted southwards. Damp S.W. wind at 60°, in contact with ice at 32 , must condense. So these distant clouds probably contained vanished bergs. Passed Cape Bluff, where a cod-seine was at work amongst a lot of hand-line fishers ; and a lot of bergs were bobbing about and resting aground. On the hill- tops large stones were perched. The water-line here is a broken cliff. Ean in to Dead Island, passing between a stranded berg and the shore. A number of boats were fishing close to the ice. Stopped to ask the way, so took an opportunity to make a rapid sketch. The boats gave a good measure of size, and when this mass was left behind, distant bergs could be measured by it. Many must be over 200 feet. Ean in to Ship Harbour, and 102 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. anchored for the night. This is a quiet calm sea-loch, with high hills rising steeply from the water's edge. The flakes and huts are upon a well-marked terrace of boulders. Two small bergs were sailing about close to the flakes. Sat down to sketch them under an umbrella, and found that they were moving slowly at about a yard a minute down wind and across the loch. The wind does therefore act upon bergs ; but very slightly. Many of our crew landed and went off to other harbours. Some fell into difficulties — over rocks and into bogs ; but they all appeared at various hours of the night. Saturday, August 6. — At 9.30 stop at Murray's Harbour and sketched a stage. Got some fish from a shore-boat. This bay is studded with small bergs. Thermometer — air 42°, water 37°. The sea like oil, and the sun bright. The sea-ice is evidently working westwards in-shore as far as it can. The harbours are full of small pieces, the creeks full of little bits. Further off are clusters of larger broken bergs — some higher than the masts of small schooners which are becalmed near them ; some twice the height. In the distance are larger bergs, some with the light behind them telling dark as hills and islands of trap ; others glittering in the sun's rays like wet chalk or polished marble. Yet even these are but ruins, for they are split into peaks ETHNOLOGY IN LABRADOR. 103 and obelisks which look like the Mer de Glace as it is on the way to the Col de Geant, at the great ice-fall. In the distance was a fine double refraction, a second horizon with a second fleet of inverted bergs. As the vessel rose and fell on the swell the two horizons met and parted, and their bergs rose and fell. A stratum of cold air lay on the water, and the layer above was a mirror to rays falling at a small angle. Air 42°, water 37°. Ean in to Battle Harbour, and found a large berg close to the stages. Began a sketch, but the steamer as usual set off in the middle of it. This, the entrance to the Straits of Belleisle, is crowded with bergs of quaint shapes. At this place a boat manned, or, it may be, womaned, by Esquimaux, came alongside. They were dressed like other fisher-folk, rowed like sailors, and were steered by a sturdy, rosy merchant, who looked very like a Scandi- navian descendant of the Vikingr out on a cruise in a whale-boat. The crew had never seen a steamer before, and the steersman was kind enough to explain the wonder in Esquimaux. That mellifluous speech is not taught at English schools ; but the expression of the auditors' faces, their looks and gestures, and Saxon words introduced into the lecture, made the meaning pretty clear. The yellow-bearded commander was tell- ing his brown dependants that the ' Ariel' was alive, and 104 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. those on board were summoned to help to prove it. The black-haired, half-tamed students of natural history were very much amused, but they were too clever to be gulled, if there be truth in human expression. When the ' Ariel' wagged her tail, and swam out of the harbour, panting, they seemed ready to caper with delight. They were a people of very quaint shape — beardless, brown- faced, black-haired, blubbery, flabby, seal-like, fish- eating, sleepy, good-natured, savage Christians. They are not like fisher Lapps in Scandinavia, who are bonnier, soft-looking Christians, with similar complexions. They are very unlike mountain Lapps, who are tough, wiry, hardy little mortals. These follow Banting's rule un- consciously, feed upon flesh and milk in mountain air, and can walk like wild-cats and other carnivora. Like them, the 'red-skins' and 'mountaineers' of this side, who live by hunting, and feed on flesh, are tough and stringy, well-featured and bright-eyed. Fisher Lapps and Esquimaux, who feed on fish, are somewhat fish- like ; and the last grow up within natural fat greatcoats, like seals of the glacial period in which they live. The architecture which we have seen is very like that of cranoges and lake-dwellings in Ireland and Switzerland. Though a very large, highly-civilized population is busy on this coast, scarce a yard of MODERN KITCHEN-MIDDENS. 105 masonry exists in Labrador. Wooden buildings are placed as near the water as they will go. They are chiefly built of rough fir-poles, with the bark on ; and many of them stand upon stilts in the sea. Beside them are 'kitchen-middens:' piles of severed crania and vertebras of marine species, mingled with gnawed bones of terrestrial mammalia, amongst which Bos Salinus and Porcus Chicagensis Americanus predomi- nate. A few circular bone and metal ornaments, to wit buttons, some glass beads worn by the mermaidens, and some broken bottles, might be found amongst cods' heads and beef-bones. A few remnants of fur- bearing animals, egg-shells, old rags, nets, dry biscuit, and such-like, might be preserved, with some rusty iron ; but as sea-water had almost eaten up a trowel, used to build the Skerryvore lighthouse, in about ten years, the few iron tools carried to Labrador have small chance of preservation. Very little crockery finds its way to land. Human remains, and implements buried with them, indicate a very low state of development and civi- lization ; shells and scratched stones demonstrate the existence of severe cold and a glacial period far south. The Esquimaux still use bone instruments ; the In- dians bows and arrows, and stone implements ; and these men are buried where their savage ancestors lived and 106 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. died ; but very few of the 50,000 strong healthy Cau- casians who people the sea in summer leave their bones in Labrador. Their remains are buried near stone churches and flourishing seaports in Newfoundland. In similar latitudes are civilized communities, who speculate on stone hatchets and human skulls. The pre- sent state of things between lat. 60° and 54° may throw light on the archaeology of Denmark and Switzerland. Ean in to Henley Harbour, and anchored for the night. Here is a large raised beach of big stones, about forty feet above the sea. It rests on slaty altered gneiss, which splits easily, and on this rests a square block of columnar basalt about 250 feet high. It is part of a sheet of which another block rests on a neighbouring point, and the sound and harbour are * denuded.' In the warm evening light the view was very fine. Belle- isle and the low coast of Newfoundland beyond the blue strait might have been the coast of France seen from Dover, but the blue strait was everywhere dotted with islands of ice. Thirty-six large bits were counted ; the small bits were numberless, and the temperature of the water was 37°. The ground was clad in an arctic dress of mosses, and Indian cup and berries ; but inland a few forest trees showed that the climate was better within a few miles of the sea. DOG-BREAKING. 107 Examined the beaches and rocks at the water-line, especially in sounds. Found the rocks ground smooth, but not striated, in the sounds. Where the waves break on points, the brittle rock is broken here as elsewhere. The beach-stones are like beach-stones at home ; mussels, coral, and whelks, are the shells. The crowd sent a dog into the water after a stone. The dog's master pursued him with boulders, and belaboured him with a board. He explained that he was a sport- ing-dog, who would be spoiled. Got on board and went to sleep. Provisions reduced to salt beef and salt pork, both hard and high. Sunday, August 7 — Bed Bay. — Landed half- dressed and found some striae perfectly fresh at the water-level, but weathered out a short distance inland. A great number of large stones were in the water, and they were of many kinds — granites, and such-like. The direction was E. half N. mag., or nearly N.E. true. There are no high hills, and by the chart this direction accords with the run of the coast, and cuts diagonally over a point. The tail of the Arctic Current has there- fore made its mark, where it is now moving S.W. In winter this whole strait is frozen. It is possible, though dangerous, to pass it on the ice. The bergs are nume- rous ; many of them bring stones in the spring ; many of 108 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. them ground. The whole mass moves S.W., and with the tide KE., but most to the S.W., and the strige are found aiming S.W., while the land is terraced, and rising slowly from the sea. Got to Lans-a-loup ; anchored, and landed. The cliffs are sandstone, and terraced. The strata are nearly horizontal, and the weather has broken out fantastic doors and windows. The sailors find out a resemblance to forts and castles. The prevailing wind seems to be K mag. KW. On the hill-tops are numerous large perched blocks of stone, like the rocks further north. The cliffs are crumbling with frost. There is a marked difference in the vegeta- tion ; grass abounds. Mosquitos are furious. Found no sign of any means of getting up the coast to Quebec. So, nolens miens, stick to the ship, and go back to St. John's. Salmon are to be got here, but there is no large river. A sporting parson has caught a few small ones with fly. Our priest held a congrega- tion, so attended. The first part was a sensible lecture to the men ordering them to work for their master, who reported that some did not do as much as they ought. They are all working on credit, paying with labour for food and gear advanced by the merchant or planter. A man who does not work is therefore robbing his creditor. As merchants thrive, these men must be honest workers, A SERMON. 109 though they are poor. The second part was a series of short prayers, repeated a vast number of times, very rapidly. The father's mission is to give the faithful a dispensation to fish on a coming saint's day if they will give their earnings on that day to build a church in St. John's, and so ' bring a blessing on their own la- bours.' There is precious little to be got here now for church or layman. After church set off again, and steamed up the straits amongst the bergs once more. As night fell, the old pilot pointed out to the captain that Belleisle was on the starboard hand, whereas it ought to be to port. The captain laughed him to scorn. In the night the vessel ran stem on to a cliff in New- foundland ; but happy go lucky they saw it through the mist, stopped the engine, and got round the cape all safe. This is the most experimental of navigation. Twice we have almost touched the cliffs with the bows ; we have shaved rocks, of which we knew nothing ; we have run into wrong harbours ; we have stopped to ask the way ; we have groped through dense fogs, without a chart, to places where no one on board had ever been ; but somehow we have got out of the mess, and clear of Labrador, and now it is straight running back to Newfoundland. Our captain deserves infinite credit for his unwearied care of the ship and crew. CHAPTEE VI THE LABRADOR. Monday, August 8. — According to experienced men on board, the currents in the Straits of Belleisle are uncertain and vary. When the wind is from the eastward the flood- tide runs three or four knots an hour to the westward, and during the ebb it is about slack water. The rise, full, and change, is about six feet. When the wind is from the westward the current from the gulf and river St. Lawrence overcomes the ocean-current ; but generally there is a constant set from the ocean westward. The same current passes down outside of Newfoundland, eddies round Cape Eace, and has caused many wrecks at St. Shots. Beyond the eddy the outer current meets the current from the straits in the gulf, and the two flow together down the coast of Nova Scotia, while the Gulf Stream flows the other way outside. So say cap- tains who know the place ; so say the chart and the sailing directions. The water is getting shoaler on the banks of Newfoundland. As the coast is rising, the sea- A MAKINE COMMOTION. Ill bottom is probably rising also. In the fall of this year, off St. Shots and St. Mary's Bay, the sea retired suddenly to a great distance. Several wrecks were uncovered, and the bottom was dry for several miles. When the sea re- turned, it came with such violence that the people were terrified and fled to the hills. Boats were swamped, stages destroyed, and generally there was a grand dis- turbance. No shock of an earthquake was felt, and there was nothing peculiar in the weather, which was fine. This looks like a submarine eruption. A man on board says that he noticed flying fish and gulf-weed off Cape Bace this year. These are marks of the Gulf Stream, and were several degrees farther north than usual. The summer has been very bad, cold and misty. An un- usual quantity of ice has been on the coast. It seems that a shift in the warm Gulf Stream has dislodged enough of arctic ice to bring down a fresh charge of cold. In Canada, away from the ice, the season was unusually hot, dry, and clear. A man who has had some experience of ice has never seen a stone on a berg in these latitudes. Captain Anderson, of the ' Europa,' who is a geologist, has never seen a stone on a berg in crossing the Atlantic. No stones were clearly seen on this trip ; but bergs do bring stones to the straits fre- quently, according to men who live there. At Lans-a- 112 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. loup, large blocks of granite and other hard stones are deposited on sandstone hills at 200 feet above the sea- level, and there is no high ground from which a com- mon glacier could come. A fair take of fish for two hands in a boat, during June, July, August, and September, is about 200 quintals hereabouts. Thermometer 48°, wind KE., strong breeze, all sail set. At sea passed some large bergs in a haze at 7 a.m. In the evening the wind changed to a N.E. gale, cold, rainy ; ship rolling, and many sick. Tuesday, August 9. — Twillinget or Toulinguet. Fine day, strong breeze N.E., bright sun. The highest hill about this place is 270 feet. Walked up, as the captain did not like to face the sea. The landscape is a wide stretch of low rolling hills, points, islands, straits, lakes, and fjords. There is vegetation in plenty, and some trees, chiefly small spruce, grow. The marshes and low grounds are thickly covered with rhododendron and Indian tea, berries and wild flowers, amongst which are wild roses and blue bells. There is a great deal of cul- tivation, and the potatoes, etc., look well, and are good to eat. The main difference in the vegetation here and in Labrador is the absence of reindeer moss. The town is built upon a raised beach. The hills have the form of sealers' adventures. 113 glaciation ; but the rocks are so weathered that no ice- marks were found away from the water-line. In the spring of this year, about 150 sail of sealers were beset off this harbour. They were frozen in from Easter Sun- day (March 2) till May. The crews, 1500 men, used to walk five or six miles over the ice to shore, and the in- habitants were obliged to feed them. Adventures were numerous, of course. A great many vessels were crushed and wrecked. When the ice moved south, they were smashed and ground up. One vessel was forced up on a large pan of ice, and floated past St. John's ; a steamer was sent after her, and she was rescued near Cape Eace. Few men lost their lives. They are so used to ice that they skip on it like two-legged seals. Boats are launched and hauled over ice, and so the crews escape though the vessels are lost. In 1848 the ice did not leave this harbour till August. This year it did not go till June. Walked three or four miles to a station with shop and warehouse. The man has built his wooden house on a low rock in the sea, and a bridge to get at it from the shore. He built one which the ice carried away ; this one has stood the brunt so far. The ice is 18 inches thick near the shore. This fellow had a fight with the sealers, about grog of course. His son, who is a kind of giant, thrashed the rioters, and they in revenge 114 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. damaged the famous bridge with axes. Keturned to the" appointed time, and found the captain with his mind made up to stop all day, as the sea outside was break- ing heavily, and Fogo is before us. Some of the crowd went to a picnic : I went to bed. Thermometer, 48°. Wednesday 10— Air 50°, water 46°. — Off Fogo. Gray sky. No bergs in sight. The coast about Little Fogo Island is all rounded; there are no cliffs here. The weather this day is very curious. At one moment the air is clear and the sun shining. A low bank of fog is seen ahead, and the vessel's bow disappears when she enters it. A thin fleecy veil comes first, and then she plunges into thick darkness. In a couple of hours or less she plunges out again into bright light and clear air, and the fog bank is seen like a wall on the horizon astern. It is a purple cloud on a dark-blue rolling sea. A large shoal of porpoises came alongside, rolling and leaping like mad things. Some of the party fired at them, and missed of course. Picked up a boat with a heavy cod-seine and four hands in it, gave them a tow with a very long rope, and dragged their bows under at every sea. It looked very dangerous, but no one seemed to care. These fel- lows were blown off, and have not been in for three days ; they were cold and wet and tired. Cast them GEYER FOGEL. 115 loose off their harbour, when they hoisted a rag of a sail and made for shore. Some parts of this day's sail required good pilotage. The course lay between two long reefs apparently on the strike of the rocks. The long heavy sea of the late gale roared and thundered over these sunken hills, making a fearful din. Watched the breakers, which made the most extraordinary turmoil, as there was a cross sea running two ways at once. About 40 miles outside lie the Funks. Here used to be great num- bers of Geyer fogel* Their skeletons are now brought to St. John's with guano. Anchor at Green's Pond for the night. Stayed on board while the crowd went on a spree. Thursday 11th.— Set off early. Strong breeze, heavy sea, air 48°, water 47° ; took nine hours to go 30 miles to King's Cove. Barometer fallen half an inch, heavy rain. Two men who went foraging for the mess were left behind, but they can walk overland. Steamed to Buona Vista and anchored. Barometer still falling nearly an inch down since last night. The wind sud- denly lulled, and changed from S.W. to N.W., when it blew harder than ever. It came howling and singing a shrill chant amongst the rigging, while blue and yellow lightning flared and flashed, and thunder rattled a ter- rible bass. The rain came down in bucketsful, and * The great auk. 116 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. there was a regular storm. It seems as if we had got into the middle of a small tornado. Stayed on board. The crowd had a rough time of it coming off in the night. One man tired of salt junk went to a dozen houses knocking up the natives. When the sleepy mor- tals came to their windows the question was, ' Have you any lamb V There was none, but a man had some chickens, so they were brought off alive and crammed into another fellow's bed. Then came a shindy, which subsided towards morning. Then the chain-gang began to heave. Truly sleeping is a feat on board this ship. Friday 12.— Ther. 48°, barometer down, sea rolling every way at once. There are two tame wild-geese on board, a box of live rabbits in the fore-cabin, a cat in the men's berth, three sick men in the hold amongst the coals, a wet dog running about the deck and seeking refuge in the berths. There is a sick woman crammed into a hole above the screw ; all our long-passage crowd and several new hands, including the M.P. for Toulinquet and the Speaker of the House. Had some eggs brought from the Funks ; they were good. Ran into Catalina and Trinity, where we picked up a doctor, who was sick immediately, and so continued. Ran across the bay to Old Purliken, and took in another sick woman and her daughter. The water at Trinity was 52° in the harbour. LABRADOR LUXURY. 117 Ran in to Harbour Grace and anchored again, as it was blowing a whole gale. The crowd went on shore, and some of them tossed for champagne till the small hours ; one drank a pint with a seidlitz before breakfast. Several very damp cheerful men warmly shook hands with me in bed ; but I have a very dim recollection of the even- ing, having acquired the art of sleeping under difficulties. If any of these shipmates happen to read this and recognise the writer, let them accept his cordial thanks for their kindness during the voyage. All on board felt and constantly mentioned their high approval of the captain's skill and unwearied atten- tion to his very arduous duties. Fair or foul he was at his post ; day and night he was always awake, bright and cheerful ; and on such a voyage he had to keep his wits bright. With thick weather, no good chart, and such a coast, he had a hard time of it. The way of our life of late was thus :— At some un- known hour, a steward, housemaid, cook, and house- keeper—a man with a powerful Newfoundland-Irish brogue, who had been a sealer, and a traveller— an- nounced that breakfast would be ready 'directly ;' and accordingly, in due time, those who slept on tables and chairs in the main cabin were turned out, and the rest tumbled in. A single cabin-steward, who probably never 118 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. had washed himself, and whose hair would always curl over his nose into his mouth at the most interesting moments, appeared bearing the salt beef, and shortly afterwards the salt pork ; and by diving through the cabin floor the same official contrived to extract a supply of biscuit. Tea, with or without milk, and salt butter, completed the breakfast. Dinner was the same ; pork and beef, with cask water instead of tea. Tea was ditto repeated, the pork and beef being cold for a change. We who lived forward had a bowing acquaintance with the beef and the pork ; they lived together in a barrel of salt water, and bobbed about us cheerfully as we climbed out of our den. In the happy, lux- urious days of our first start, when we had fresh meat for dinner, the mortal remains of a tough sheep, and the disjecta membra of an ancient cow, lay swathed in an old sail on the top of our companion- hutch. Whoever put his head out to see how the weather looked, risked 'colliding' with sheep or cow, as mutton or beef; but no one seemed the worse at dinner-time. On Fridays we had salt fish, and occa- sionally soup and pudding. Arrived opposite to some landing-place, and the captain having announced that he would stop ' two hours,' the passengers and the good- humoured crew lowered the boats, and scrambled into THE LABRADOR MAIL. 119 them. At first we went anyhow ; but finding that method objectionable, the port and starboard tables took separate boats and raced. Having reached the land, those who had business in the place clattered and slid over the rocks and fish offal into the nearest house, and the rest followed. We were a goodly company — a priest, a missionary, several clergymen of various denominations occasionally, and ten or a dozen hardy, active, young merchants learning their work thoroughly by doing it themselves. Crammed into a wooden room, we filled it. The converse was fishy. How many quintals a man ? How many had we heard of ? Where was the best take ? What would be the price ? It was a keen encounter of wits between buyers and sellers, debtors and creditors, capital and labour, all eager for intelligence to be turned into gold ; and yet the 'Ariel' is all that Newfoundland turns out in the way of steam-power applied to mails. Questions and answers dry throats, and ere many minutes had passed a bottle usually appeared. He was often the last of his race, and he bled for his country freely. For half an hour the clergy did their duty, while the merchants transacted their business, and the only real idler on board used his eyes. By that time the captain had generally blown the steam-whistle, and 120 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. the boats had to return. It was a hard race to get a boat hoisted first ; and it often happened that the two short hours allowed were grievously curtailed. Some- times two hours lengthened into half a day, but the passengers were tethered to the ship by this uncertainty. When a gale or a fog came on we knew what to do, and broke loose accordingly. At night some went to bed, but some one always had business which kept him awake, and many walked great distances in the dark. At any hour a stream of damp mariners, headed by the representative of some firm, might pour down our hutch, pour porter down their own throats, chew, spit, and smoke, while they talked fish on boxes in the forehold by the light of a tallow dip. When they came, they stayed till the ship was ready to move, or the porter expended. Great, strong, rough, sturdy, hearty, wet mariners they were. It was pleasant to watch their weather-beaten, brown faces, and listen dreamily to their long yarns, and then gradually to drop off and kick the bald head of the old snoring pilot in the next bunk. When the ship was about to move she let us know. First the crew turned out, and they were only a plank off next door ; then the engines began to rumble in their insides, and then to scream ; then some one rung a furious big- bell at the open hutch, and then the whole crew dashed THE ABODE OF PEACE. 121 the whole iron chain, with all their pith, upon the deck immediately over this abode of peace. In an- other hour a place, an iceberg, an island, a whale, or something else, made it absolutely necessary to get up and go on deck. At first it was difficult to sleep, at last we all slept like tops and enjoyed the noise amazingly. No one ever really enjoyed the pork, but constant foraging only produced a very little edible fish, a dozen or two of gulls' eggs, and one brace of small chickens. Those who had brought strong liquor consoled themselves, and while the stores lasted they offered fluid, solid, and vaporous consolation to those who had none of their own. May their shadows increase ! Those who did not drink strong liquor did as best they could with strongly-coloured water, which lived in a cask beside the larder, near the hatch of the fore-hold. We were the admirals and merchant-princes of these seas, the very cream and top oil of St. John's, and the best of bay-men, and so we fared in the best mail-boat in the colony, specially chartered to visit the most im- portant of her fishing-grounds, and carry news for 119,304 anxious people. Steamers, regular as clock-work and comfortable as yachts, run round the North Cape of Norway once a fortnight, and a telegraph spreads news of herring along the whole of that northern coast. 122 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. The ice which does so much harm appears to have congealed the energies of the British colonists. On the other hand, there is energy enough and to spare somewhere in the people. In March they fight seals and the pack, and it is a desperate battle. As soon as the ice will permit, they flit northwards to 'the Labrador' to fish cod. There they fight the battle of life with cold and hardship, waves, ice, storm, and mist. They go to their ground in small vessels crammed as the hold of a slaver is crammed. When they get there they live chiefly in open boats, or camp on bare rocks, in rickety wooden shanties that look as if a puff would blow them to sea. Norwegians who fish in darkness, in the dead of winter, within the Arctic Circle, have better lodging and warmer weather. When the short summer of Labrador ends, the men put the boats into the ships, and pile themselves and their fish into the holds. Men, women, and children, sick and sound, ship and gear, off they go down stream to Newfoundland, and there they spend their winter in running up a fresh score, to be worked out in seals and cod, blubber, liver, and men's lives, in March. No one knows the number of this floating crowd. The fixed population of the Labrador was about 1650 in 1857 ; the fishers come from everywhere, and must exceed 50,000. 'PLENTY OF FISH AT BRIG HARBOUR.' 123 Such a strange herd of migratory amphibious crea- tures — men and seals — exists nowhere else ; to see them was worth the trouble of this trip ; but why that trouble should exist in a rich British colony in 1864, is incom- prehensible. There is no direct mail communication with England or Canada, though the imports and ex- ports of Newfoundland exceed a million sterling, and the port of St. John's is very famous for imported port wine, which is earned in Labrador. Still in my dreams there comes a loud drawling shout of — ' Plenty of fish at Brig Harbour.' In 1863 the Straits of Belleisle were crammed with cod ; so, in 1864, lots of vessels went there for cargoes. 'When they got there the cupboard was bare ; ' so the fore-and- afters went prospecting up the coast. Each crew, as the steamer passed down, hailed for news. It so happened that Brig Harbour was near the furthest point reached, and the first ship met on the way back was told to go there. Thenceforth it grew into a habit, and finally it became a joke. Every ship that hailed was sent to Brig Harbour, and every one altered course and set off at once. There must have been a large fleet there in August. There were ' plenty of fish in Brig Harbour,' but quite as many at other spots, and some of the vessels 124 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. were sent a fool's errand as far as from Dover to New- castle. Surely it would pay to run a proper mail up that strangest of strange wild coasts, ' the Labrador/ Saturday 13.— Off at daylight. Ther. 48°. Blowing very hard, and a heavy sea on. The vessel rolled so that I had to hold on in my berth and jam myself against the ends. One man, being very sick, fetched way, rushed headlong over the cabin in his shirt, and plunged into the priest's berth ; his fist took him under the ear, and nearly brained him. The next lurch sent him sprawling on all fours, feet foremost, back to his own side, apologising with all his might. In another minute he was successfully sick, and back again to bed quite well. Eose at 8, and watched the sea, which was very grand. Eeached St. John's at 9.30. It has been a curious trip, unquiet and uncomfortable, but good fun on the whole. Spent the rest of the day in eating and washing, and reading the Times in the news- room, to which a shipmate introduced me a stranger. CHAPTEE VII. AVALON. Monday 15.— Walked round the harbour down to the lighthouse. The rocks at the point are a very coarse sandstone, made up of pebbles of granite, white and red quartz, jasper, and sandstones of sorts, in a matrix of hard red sand. Joints in the rock pass through these pebbles, and are filled with white quartz in crystals. No fossils to be seen. In some beds, the round water-worn peb- bles are worn smooth, and to an even surface, as if the beds had slid one upon the other in the process of up- heaval. The dip 50° K To the north and westward are slates underlying the sandstone. The valleys and lines of hill correspond generally to the strike ; and in this case the slate has been more worn than the sandstone. The narrows are made by a gap crossing the sandstone, and the glacial striae come from the high grounds behind the town, and rise up and over the range of hills which make the coast-line. Ice now comes in from the sea. On the 2d of June 1863, the harbour was filled 126 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. with it, and the sea in the offing was covered to the horizon. Every winter the harbour freezes to 18 inches or more ; and in March vessels are cut out. This is the glacial period at St. John's. The rocks at the water- line are ground smooth, but not striated. When a heavy sea comes rolling in from the Atlantic, heavy breakers beat over this point, and the narrows are filled with the broken water ; but the water-line is unlike the cliffs of the opposite coast, where rocks are broken by such breakers. Close above the water-line the rocks are weathered by frost, so that hard ribs project half a foot beyond the surface, and pebbles stand out like stones on a beach. There is nothing in these ice-marks of the present like the fresh sharp striae which run over the top of Signal-hill, 540 feet above the sea-level, and which have resisted the weather so as to be perfectly clear. Walked up to the hill-top. Levelled the top of Signal- hill, and made it 540 feet. The highest point on this side is 630. The highest ridge inland is about 800, distant about 4 miles. Looking down from this point, the shape of the country generally corresponds to the run of the currents, N.E. and S.W. magnetic, about N. 12° E. true. The glacial striae can only be accounted for by supposing that the hollows were filled with ice, so as to overflow seawards. The heat very oppressive — 78° in the KENT IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 127 sun, 70° in the shade. Sprang three reiper ' partridge.' Lay under the shadow of a big perched block, panting and smoking, and rejoicing in a breeze of north wind. Lots of women and girls were gathering partridge-berries on the hills. The tops are bare tors, but weathered. Every hollow contains a marsh or a small pond ; every one of these has a fringe of scrub, thick and tangled. On trying to return, got into one thicket, and nearly stuck there. Struggled through, and got hold of the end of a path which led to a small cottage with a potato-gar- den and a flock of goats. The owner was an old chat- tering Irishman, with lame legs ; and he and three girls were seated on a rock basking. Joined the party, and basked for half an hour, listening to the old man's ac- count of himself and his ailments, and his family history. Asked him if he paid any rent. * Faith and I do ; one shilling ; and I pay it over there at the office every year regular.' On leaving, found some rocks newly laid bare in the path. Striae, not well marked, seem to run paral- lel to the harbour — E.N.E. mag., or nearly at right angles to the strise on Signal-hill. There seems to have been no general direction of movement here. Made a hurried sketch of the harbour, and got back at dark. Wrote till bed-time, and smoked hard. Walked about 10 miles only, and felt as if I had walked 30. 128 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. Tuesday 16. — Walked about the town in the morn- ing, and hired a man, and his horse and trap, for £1 cur- rency per diem, to go to Colinet, and wherever else I chose. Got under weigh at 2, in a small double phaeton, with a chestnut nag ; driver, Ned Breenan, in a steeple- hat, looking as if he meant to be a regular woodman for this trip. He was a dark-haired, hook-nosed man, in a loose gray frock, and generally he looked like work. Ther. 53°, wind N., the air feeling sharp and chilly after the heat of yesterday. Drove over the hills and down to Topsail, 630 feet, by this road. The whole country is covered with glacial drift, the rock gray and yellow slate ; the hill-tops are bare and much rounded. Farms are numerous ; oats still green ; lots of raspberries ripe in the woods. The valleys are clad with a dwarf forest of spruce — black, red, and white. The descent to Placentia Bay is in a glen, with glaciated rocks, moraines, and all other ice-marks, striae excepted. These were not con- spicuous ; at least none were seen from the trap. Walked on ahead 7 miles from Topsail ; the country is a mass of boulders of large size, heaped, and piled, and spread about everywhere. Drove on to Holyrood — 30 miles in all. Stopped at a little roadside inn, with a large chim- ney in the kitchen. Two good-looking girls and an old woman were the inhabitants, and pigs and poultry came THE WATER-BULL. 129 toddling in as if the place were their own. Supped with the driver, and slept in a small closet of a room, from which I could hear all the rest of the people going to bed. Had a long jaw with an old skipper who owns the house : subject, the Labrador seals and cod. One subject started was the 'sea-cow.' Throughout the British Isles the Celtic population firmly believe in the existence of an amphibious and very uncanny creature, which, according to their account of him, is a little gray water-bull. He lives in fresh-water lakes, comes on shore, breeds with tame cattle, and does no particular harm ; but he has something supernatural in his nature, and no one likes to venture at night to places haunted by the Tarabh uisge. He frequents sea-lochs and the ocean, where no large or deep fresh-water lakes exist. This belief is so genuine, and stories told about the appearance of 'the bull' are so very circumstantial, that many Saxons have adopted the popular creed. English sportsmen have watched beside Scotch lakes for a shot at the monster ; proprietors have tried to drain ponds and catch him, and, when that scheme failed, they have whitened the water with quick-lime to kill him by foul means. An English nobleman, distinguished for his learning and accomplishments, once took the trouble to write down all that he could learn about this mysterious K 130 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. creature, and the evidence collected by him would have gone far to prove a case in any court. The belief is not peculiar to any one branch of the Celtic population of the British Isles ; it seems to pervade all who dwell near the Atlantic coast, The very same notion prevails in Iceland. A few years ago a farmer described a water creature which he had seen in a lake there, and some English sportsmen set off in pursuit. It was not a horned specimen, but it was as big as a cow. In New- foundland the same story is told, with more details and circumstances. On board the 'Ariel' our male house- maid positively declared that he had seen a creature in the ice which had the head and front and forelegs of a cow. It rose beside ' a pan,' and scrambled half out of water close to a lot of sealers armed with guns and pikes and clubs. They were afraid to use their weapons, and after a time the water-cow, horns and all, subsided and disappeared. The hinder end of him seemed to fall away something like a seal ; but he was neither seal nor walrus, for he had little crooked horns on his head, and feet like a cow. With this yarn reeled up, the old sailor-landlord was set to spin another, and he spun it ' right away' directly the bait was offered. He knew all about the beasts. Many of the sealers had seen them in the ice, but they did not like to meddle with TERRACES AND BEACHES. 131 them, and no one had ever killed a sea-cow, so far as he knew. If this Tarabh uisge be a creation of Celtic brains, he certainly is the most material < tarradiddle' yet born of human imagination. Wednesday 17.— Up early, and walked down to the shore. The drift of yesterday seems to be a vast ter- race, rising to 150 feet along the hill-side, for 15 or 16 miles along the shore of Placentia Bay. The rocks in the land-wash, where sea-ice now works in winter, are striated in the direction of the bay, but this seems to be old ice-work not yet destroyed. The rock is slaty, gray, and much weathered where exposed to the air. The hill-tops are great tors, all rounded and quite bare ; the low grounds are covered with thick forests of small trees ; the coast only is cleared and settled. All the able-bodied are up at the Labrador. Got under weigh at 10.20 j drove down to one of these quaint raised beaches which abound in this bay. They are large ramparts of rolled stones, about as big as small turnips, which run along the coast in sweeping curves ; sometimes they cross the mouths of small harbours and rivers, and make brackish lakes. These have no sort of resemblance to the terraces and heavy drift on shore. Rose the hill again through fields manured with fish- guts, and redolent thereof. Cabbages, carrots, potatoes, 132 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. hay, fine grass, and grain of sorts, growing well. Climbed to the top of a great bare tor which rises at the very end of Placentia Bay ; it is 600 feet high. The rock seems to be felspathic ash, too much weathered for stria? ; but this hill is a tor. Looking down, it is mani- fest that a glacier slid towards the magnetic N.E., down into this bay from the hills, which here make an isthmus about 25 miles wide, and only 550 feet high at the watershed. Hills 1000 feet high are seen, and from these the ice came. In short, though no stria? are preserved, the whole evidence points to large glaciers following the general slope of the land down the hills and into the bays on the east coast, The piles of drift are the moraines. In passing along the road the loose stones change. At one place granite abounds, and granite is in the hills ; at another, slate is the prevailing rock in the drift, and the hills are slate. On this tor numer- ous very large blocks of coarse sandstone are poised on the bare hill-top, isolated from all neighbouring hills ; but the hills inland are sandstone, and higher than this hill. The last glaciation of Newfoundland was cer- tainly effected by a local system of glaciers, which were high enough to cover hills now 600 feet above the sea, and to grind the glens below them. Drove on up a very bad road into a forest, which got A NEWFOUNDLAND REEL. 133 gradually thicker and higher, as the cold sea was left and the warmer sea approached. The weather very hot, and flies in clouds. Vegetation changing rapidly. Kubus arcticus, dog-rose, raspberry, strawberry, sweet gale, rhododendron, larch (called juniper), and a thick luxuriant scrub of other plants, hid the ground: the trees grew so thickly that a man could hardly force his way edgeways between the trunks. The lakes were fringed with trees growing almost in the water, and covered with yellow waterlily and water-plants. The open leads which occurred here and there were wet marshy muir. Stopped at the half-way house, and sketched as well as the flies would let me. Hearing o music, went in and found a wandering mason droning out a reel or a jig, and a driver dancing with a pretty wild-looking girl. He handed her over to me, and to please them rather than to gratify myself, I also capered. The old landlady, who looked like a bolster tied in the middle, sat in an arm-chair made of an old herring-barrel, and applauded. Drove on down- hill to Colinet, stopping for a few minutes at the bridge at Salmoniere. This river is a succession of shallow streams and deep weedy ponds in the forest. It was vain to fish there, so drove on, getting gradually out of the forest into a more open country. The driver 134 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. proposed fishing in a weedy loch by the road-side. Would not insult my tackle by putting it into such a hole. Got ferried over the Colinet river by two pretty little girls, and took up quarters in the house of Davis, a noted deer-hunter and poacher, who was away ' in the country' with a party of deer-shooters. Asked the old dame, and Helen Davis, her pretty daughter, to get some tea, and walked a mile to the other river, where is a fall about which a piece of work is made. It is pretty enough — a stream tumbling over the edges of some slaty rocks, the beds making water-slides of great regu- larity. The last slide is into salt water, but fish come up nevertheless. Thursday 18. — Up early ; fine bright day. Went a-fishing with Ned Breenan, who pretended to know all about the rivers and the country. Went first to the fall, and tried all the holes, catching one little par. Gave that up, and tried the other river, which was a mere rill in a wide bed of stones. It was full of par and char ; killed 100, and lost a great many amongst the stones, and while wading. Dined on the bank, by the help of the kettle. Late in the evening went up about a mile and found some deeper holes, Mr. Ned having informed me that there were none. Hooked a small salmon in one of these pools, and broke the casting-line, which had got SALMON-FISHING. 135 worn amongst the stones. It was evident that all the salmon had gone up as far as they could. On returning found the hunters come home blank. The sportsman is a schoolmaster at Placentia, and had come to Colinet with an attendant to spend his vacation in the woods. They went about twelve miles inland to the second pond, and there camped. When their fire was made the salmon came plunging about in the deep water close to the land- wash, ' large salmon a yard long.' They thought they were deer, they thought they would leap on shore, etc. In short, there were plenty of fish in the upper pond, where I wanted to go, and where Ned Breenan did not, as it now appeared. They had seen a great many deer-tracks and one deer. He was in the river, but be- fore the sportsman could make up his mind to fire, the deer had leaped into the forest, and there was an end of him. Sat over the fire jawing till late. Old Davis is a manifest poacher, but a nice old fellow. Friday 19. — Set off for the first pond to try for a salmon. Ned Breenan retired to the stable, and, as it transpired, slept all day. Old Davis shouldered my basket and his own gun, which was two yards long at least. I shouldered my rod, and we marched off into * the country.' Our way lay through * leads,' marshy land overgrown with rein-moss, multiberries, and such -like. It 136 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. was muggy and hot, and misty and rainy ; and at every step my feet sank over the shoes in something like a wet sponge without the spring. The old man, with broad-soled shoes and his lighter body, scarcely sank where I went far above the ankles at times. It was very hot surely, and the flies were bloodthirsty, venomous, vicious, and numerous exceedingly. They were as bad as in Sweden, and that is about as bad as can well be. The armies were headed by horse-bees, creatures half an inch long, with daggers in their noses. Then came smaller pests, as big as large bluebottles; then gally- nippers or mosquitos, which bored holes in the skin through stockings and trousers ; and the rest of the flying squadron was made up of small midges and black flies, which bit and stung, and sang and buzzed, and tickled every scrap of bare skin. Put a handkerchief under my hat, and got along tolerably. Deer-tracks were pretty numerous and fresh, but there was not a bird to be seen for six miles of this plodding, neither bird nor feather. By turning and twisting round points of forest, we kept in this ground till within a mile of the pond ; here we dived into the wood, following a path. It was merely a track in which a few branches had been lopped off to make head-room, and no stranger could have kept it. The old man kept it, and led to sundry trunks laid over A BEAVER TOWN. 137 deep streams, which we scrambled over by the help of poles. He and his sons come here for birds and eggs, and this is their path, used for many years, and still a wilderness. Arrived at the pond, found a weedy hole, with waterlilies close to the bank, so did not fish. All this country now swarms with beaver, and we had reached a settlement. A large pile of branches and mud, about the size of a hayrick, was made at the water's edge, and in the water. It was an old beaver-house, and I sat down on the top, and heard the old man hold forth, while we munched biscuits and smoked turn about. Opposite to us was a second house, and at the end of the lake, in a flat meadow covered with rank green grass a yard long, was the top of a third house, now building. It was on an island in a creek, and could not be reached without a boat. All round us, in the soft turf of the banks, were beaver-roads : canals, a foot wide, dug into the land ten or twenty yards, and ending in a path cleared to the trees. The canal had fur- nished mud for the house, the path was the road for food and timber, and food and timber were piled on the house. The food is 'white wood' and birch, about a couple of inches thick. The branches had been neatly nibbled into portable lengths, and they were piled on a turf opposite to the house. The old branches had been 138 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. neatly peeled, and the marks of the tools used — to wit the teeth — were on every stick. Beaver-root — the root of the yellow lily — was nibbled and left, about in scraps. Followed the shore, and went to the forest to look at the work there. A couple of birch-trees had been felled for the bark ; one stump measured two feet in girth, and not a scrap of the trunk or branches was left. The other lay where it fell untouched, and it was a goodly birch-tree. It had been felled late in the fall, and the frost had come on before they could move the prize home. There were the tooth-marks and the peculiar chips of these strange little carpenters. We left their work, and went off back to an upper lake where they had a dam. It was made, like the house, of small branches and mud piled at the end of the lake, and piled in the very shape of Plymouth breakwater — broad below, nar- row above, with the water oozing slowly through it, so that no stream moved it and no fall undermined the base. Now, is this instinct or design? Long ago a boy made a dam in a similar position, in order to sail boats in a pond. It was a wall made of turf, and when it was pretty high the water cut a hole in the top, which en- larged, till the wall-dam went off with the rush. A second attempt failed also. After working all day, the first diffi- culty was mastered by placing a plank on top of the ENGINEERING. 139 turf wall for the water to flow over ; but when the head of water gathered and began to fall, the fall dug out the foundation, and the whole fabric was swept away in a moment. Engineers of experience lately failed to dam a lake effectually, and so drowned a town. The beavers suc- ceed ; their plan is the very best that could be devised ; and the youngest beaver works on the old plan which the young human animal does not inherit from his an- cestors, but learns from them, or puzzles out for him- self. But here is the difference between men and beasts : — ~No beaver can do anything beyond his own trade, but a man may be jack-of-all-trades, if master of none. Meandering about amongst the woods, we came to a place which these little engineers had flooded. We had to grope about for a passage, and finally cut down a tree to get over the old river-course. It was queer walking amongst long drowned grass, old stumps, fallen trees, branches, and scrub, with water up to the knees, and deep holes hidden somewhere. Old Davis found his way, nevertheless, and we scrambled through another thicket to a new beaver-house, which he knew to be inhabited. We danced upon the roof, and shook it ; and out dashed the people under water, leaving the long train of bubbles which also marks the bolt of an otter. Presently the wave of the sunken 140 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. navigator was seen nearing some long grass, and then the grass itself waved as the brute worked along the shore. Old Davis spied him more than 200 yards away, making for another old house on the oppo- site side of the lake, but I never got sight of him. So there we sat down, and smoked and prosed, in a damp, warm, foggy, gray, still atmosphere, with steaming lead- coloured water before us, and a dank, dripping, half- drowned forest of scrubby birch and pine all around. The only cheery creatures about the place were a family of chattering jays, who seemed inclined to taste the flesh on which gallynippers were feasting royally. The house is so built that the door is under water. If it were not deep enough, they would be frozen in ; there- fore they make the dam after the house is made, so that the ice may form a roof over the hall-door. If the walls of the house were thin, the frost would freeze up the water-way ; therefore they pile up such a heap that the frost cannot penetrate, and having prepared for winter, they dive out and dig waterlily roots under the glass roof of their winter garden. The inside of the house has an anteroom for shaking wet jackets, and a bedroom neatly plastered with mud, with every projecting stick nibbled off. The bed is of bark, and dry as a bone. It seems a foul murder to slay such wise brutes ; but ' they DEER-YARNS. 141 are very good, and the tail makes first-rate soup.' To trap them, a heavy trap is laid on the house in the water, with a long chain. When the creature is caught, he springs into deep water, and the weight drowns him. An easy way to shoot them is to spoil the dam, and watch the place. As soon as the water begins to ebb, the colony go off to mend the works, and the enemy can take them unawares. Old Davis once spoilt a dam, and went away. When he came back, he found a log laid in the breach, and a forked stick, with the root down-stream, planted against the beam. ' You see, sir, the bayver thought it was de wAter that pushed down the dam, and he put the stick that way to stop the force of it.' I have no doubt this is quite true, for many of the old fellow's yarns stood the test of examination : houses, dams, canals, roads, trees, beaver-meat, and deer-tracks came true. It was harder to swallow his yarns about deer. He spoke of killing five or six at a shot with single ball. But here again others told the same tale ; and it is possible that a gun six feet long, loaded with three or four fingers of powder, may drive a bullet through five or six bodies in a large herd crowded thickly together. The deer are the reindeer, better grown. In summer, they migrate northwards to the barrens : wide tracts of bare ground strewn with pebbles, where scarce a tree grows, and 142 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. mosquitos are not abundant. In the fall, they return southwards, crossing the isthmus at Placentia, and else- where. When a grand drive is organized, three lines of men, armed with sealing guns, are stationed inland, and the herd is startled near the shore. In running the gauntlet they lose first their heads and then their lives. They get huddled together in dense crowds, and the sealers' guns commit sad havoc. It is a point of honour to kill nothing that is not wanted, and to carry out every scrap of venison. Some Englishmen who killed deer wantonly, and left the meat in the forest, are still men- tioned with strong disapprobation. The taint of carrion drives deer from the ground, and to kill them in scores for the mere love of slaughter was not a sportsmanlike act. Saturday, August 20. — Drove back 60 miles to St. John's ; start 6.20, stop 9.20, at half-way house. Another driver came with us, and having once run a hare down in winter on this road, he was wild when a poor little hare appeared. He set off at full gallop, but the hare left the road and vanished. The old woman at the half-way house was very fat, and seemed to spend most of her time in the old barrel, into which she had crammed a cushion. When she rose the barrel was apt to stick to her, so she had removed an extra stave ; the drivers made a great row, measuring the old lady with a A BITTERN-HUNT. 143 tape. Got to Holyrood at 1, stop till 2.45. An old fellow who had been out seeking for minerals here pro- duced his store ; he had specimens of lead and copper- ore, and one stone which he said contained minute specks of gold ; he had been employed by the American com- panies, and was getting gradually drunk by constant drams. A tall well-grown Newfoundlander overtook us here, and asked the old woman about a strange bird which was sitting beside the road. She had no strange bird she said. Then it must be a wild one, said the new comer ; * it's sittin' dere under de trees/ Away went the whole lot immediately, miner, drivers, and passengers, helter-skelter down the road — the big man, with his coat off, leading. Having reached * de tree,' he paused and pointed to a long-necked, brownish-yel- low, shambling young bittern, sitting with his head laid back on his humpy shoulders, gazing out at the high road. He had just walked out to see the world for the first time. The ruthless coat was over him in a moment, and the long sprawling green legs were speedily kicking out of one end, while the sharp dagger-like beak and the bright eyes peered savagely out from the collar of the blue jacket. We carried him to Holyrood, and pre- sented him to the queen, who was frying eggs and bacon in the kitchen. The poor debutant was very shy, and 144 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. tried to hide himself anywhere and everywhere, espe- cially where he ought not to go. Finally he was packed into a box, with a handkerchief tied over his head to keep him in, and by the time he got to the capital he was a stifled corpse. It appeared during dinner that weasels in New- foundland are peculiarly wise and vicious. A man who was mowing in the neighbourhood found a nest of young ones, and carried them off. The man and his mate had a pail of milk for their special benefit, and the mate, who was wiser than his partner, noticed ' de ould weasel come up to de pail and spit into it three times. ' Ah,' said he, * you had better take de young ones and put dem back where you found dem, or de ould one will be sure to do us some hurt.' Well, de man took de young weasels and put dem whar he found dem, and dey went on wid dere work. When de ould one found de young ones all right she came back to de pail, and she never stopped till she overturned it, and spilt de milk. You see she had spit into it, and she did not want to hurt us since we had not hurt de young ones.' Thereupon followed a whole cable of weasel yarns of the same kind. Got to St. John's by dark, having stopped at Topsail for another hour. It was a long drive for a single mare, but she did it well and easily. CHAPTEK VIII. NEWFOUNDLAND, ETC. Sunday 21.— After church dined with a friend and fellow-passenger, who is also a good sportsman, and with him and a colonial magnate of like tastes walked to a hill-top. Thick mist. Monday 22.— Air 58°, water in the harbour 50°, air near the hill-top 64°.— Walked to Quidi Vidi over the hills. Thick mist, and a very heavy sea rolling in against the cliffs. Made a sketch. Heat oppressive. Tuesday 23.— Air 58°, St. John's Harbour 50°, air near the hill-top 64°.— Walked to the top of a hill to the westward beyond Quidi Vidi. Sprang some reiper, and found a lot of boys and girls gathering berries. Made a sketch and some rubbings, and walked home again. The stench of the fish-manure in the fields was portentous. People hay-making busily. These hill- tops are all ice-ground, but failed to discover strias, though the rock is the same as on Signal-hill. In the lower grounds found marks running up-hill in the old L 146 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. direction, or nearly. The result of all the observations points to large local glaciers passing seawards from the watershed. The fish-stages at Quidi Vidi are very good speci- mens of their class, and exceedingly picturesque. One is perched beneath a steep hill of red sandstone, which is bare enough to show the edge of every bed in it, but sufficiently clad with plants to make it a decent respect- able sea-cliff. The building is upon a low stage in the cliff where the sea has broken the sandstone, and worn the broken edges into strange clefts and dark green hollows and humps. On this uneven base a scaffold of rough firs makes an intricate pattern. Some few sticks are upright, but the most of them lean, and have to be propped and stayed, bound together and thrust apart, and jammed against the broken red stone. On this maze of poles of uneven length, a burnt-sienna network of withered fir-branches is woven and bound, and on it rest piles of fish and nets, old barrels, oars, sails, and marine stores, piled in admirable confusion. At one end of this edifice the fish-mansion is placed. It is of the same material, and nothing but a photograph could ever convey any idea of the battered collection of sticks and boards and branches, which are nailed and woven into the shape of a house. The floor of it may be thirty feet A FLAKE. 147 above the sea, and from it rickety stairs and ladders, and stages of smaller dimensions, creep down to the water. The last stage is in the sea, and is a rack of poles for men to climb out of the boats. The particular narrow cove in which this stage was built is open to the Atlantic, and when a heavy sea comes rolling in amongst the broken sandstone reefs and points, it makes a wondrous din and turmoil, and lights up the picture gloriously. Flakes of snow-white foam settle in the dark sea-green shadows, and fly up and over the house, to settle upon the red sandstone and amongst the grass. With sterns almost touching the rock, and bows fast moored to heavy stones and rings, morticed into the rock out- side, the sharp fishing-boats struggle in the green seething whirling water, which comes roaring in as if to tear the boat to bits, and toss her into the fish-stage. But lon In an old country a man takes up a business and sticks to it, and his son follows in his father's groove. Steamers stay in the sea, Here everybody turns his hand to everything that happens to turn up, and goes ahead his own way ; and ' there's nae law aboon the pass,' as the old Highlander said to the Saxon. Old Norse worthies w T ere dragged in their ships overland, to fulfil the letter of a grant of all that they could sail round in the Western Isles of Scotland. Bruce followed in his ship over a tarbert, as it is told. Perhaps Uncle Sam meant to circumnavigate the Hudson's Bay terri- tories, and the colonial league, and circumvent his old father John Bull. If he won't use what he has no wonder. A Scotch lawyer turned Yankee, and too energetic for the Eastern States, represents an accumu- lation of energetic cuteness that may do a great deal ; and such men abound in the north-west, amongst the British bison bulls. MISSISSIPPI MUD. 305 Rose early from a luxurious bed. Above a marble basin was a printed request, that notice might be given of anything amiss with the waterworks. Turned on the water, and a stream of chocolate flowed in. Reck- oned that this was amiss, and rang accordingly, but reckoned without my host. An ebony gentleman answered. He looked blandly at the water, which was so thick that an inch hid the white basin ; he dipped his black ringer daintily in, as if that would make it any cleaner ; and then he smiled cheerfully and said, ' I reckon there must be a lot of steamers in the basin.' I thought he meant my basin, but it seems he meant the basin of the Mississippi, or that part of it which is opposite to St. Louis. Pointing humbly to the notice, excused myself for my ignorance, bowed out the blackamoor, and did the best I could with the golden water. The mud of this great yellow flood is so exceedingly fine, that it is next to impossible to get rid of it, but after a few trials the water does as well as if it looked clean. Filled a glass, and left it to settle ; the mud was still suspended after twenty-four hours. As the river is muddy at all seasons, the quantity carried by it in a year must be something portentous. According to the Mississippi Survey, enough to cover a square mile to a depth of some feet (I think ten) is 306 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. annually taken away from America and given to some land under the sea. But a river whose fall is 1680 feet in 3000 miles, or about twenty inches in a mile, could never move a heavy boulder. The denudation effected by this, one of the largest rivers in the world, amounts to something like the scouring of a road by a shower. The macadam is washed in the rut where the rain- water accumulates most; the road itself is not much altered, but some of the mud is packed in the gutters, and there sorted into particular forms. Having got through the muddy marble basin of this magnificent hotel, fed like a prince in a hall of dazzling light with dark attendants, and went out to see what was to be seen in St. Louis. At home I always skip the American political news; here American affairs are forced into notice. The first thing worthy of note was the absence of bustle and the presence of soldiers. The enemy really was somewhere near, headed by a former State governor who was very popular, and all the town was drilling or being drilled. The shops were closed in the afternoon, and the owners were met in the streets learning the goosestep in plain clothes. They looked very like an awkward squad of London volunteers on an undress drill-day. It was rumoured that one-half of the town men were 'secesh' at heart. Why should Chicago ' SILENCE IN THE PIG-MARKET.' 307 flourish and St. Louis pine ? One is a baby in a bog ; the other an old respectable merchant-city, seated upon the biggest river, in the heart of the richest land in America, and founded on a rock. This cruel war is the apparent cause ; but what is the cause of the war ? The chief commerce of this town lies up-stream and down. The Northern States have opened the river, and hold New Orleans at the mouth, but they cannot guard the whole bank. The enemy are always popping at steamers. Sometimes a couple of guns get on the inside of a curve in a bend, and follow the steamer, pitching shot into her till she gets round the curve of the S> and has the inner curve. There is nothing for it but to sit on the safety-valve and go. As it is a service of danger to travel, commerce is in a bad way down-stream ; up-stream the water is so low that steamers can hardly make their way. A whole shoal of white Noah's arks were stranded and moored like herrings packed in a barrel, with their sharp noses in the mud and their tails in the water. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good ; and the blast of war has blown all the pigs to Chicago. But what evil power blew the ill wind that blasted the trade of St. Louis ? — that is the question. As it appears, Chicago is better placed for the provision trade than St. Louis. 308 AN AMERICAN Tit AMP. It is good for wine to sail round the world ; it is especially good for port -wine to be carried to Newfoundland to be cooled in a sea fog — why or wherefore nobody knows, but the fact is so. It is very bad for corn and flour, salt beef and pork, to be carried through the torrid zone past St. Louis and New Orleans. On the other hand, it is impos- sible to get out of the basins by way of Quebec in winter, because of the ice-plug. At all times the lake navigation is difficult and dangerous : the shores are low and hard to see, nights are dark, winds are strong, and there is a lee-shore close at hand in every wind. To get to Buffalo from Chicago, my friend the murdered pig must describe a path like the letter Z- But the rail on a flat goes straight as a dart ; and rails radiate from Chicago in all directions. The dead pig and John Barleycorn may travel together by rail from abattoirs and elevators at Chicago, through cool climates, good for provisions and consumers, at all seasons, to seaport towns on the eastern seaboard, and there embark for anywhere. For these reasons, as it is said in the West, the Garden City and the farm-states about her cannot afford to quarrel with friends on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies. The Western States submit to the draft, and support the war, which could not go on without CAUSA TETEKKIMA BELLI. 309 their help, because of their provision trade. In Ould Ireland, the pig pays the rint, and is the poor man's best friend. Here, as it appears, he is his deadly foe. 'The poor' (Irish) 'man's blood' flows that 'the rich' (merchant) 'man's gold' may be boiled out of scalded pigs and mush. On what strange little pivots great events seem to turn ! The old song says — ' Buy my caller herrin' ; Though ye may ca' them vulgar fairin', Wives and mitliers, maist despairing Ca' them lives o' men.' When we dined on salt pig in the ' Ariel,' we fed on Irish men, and supported the war by supporting the provision trade of the Western States. For the sake of dead pigs the steamers are stranded at St. Louis in the mud, through which 1 had to wade on getting up. The pigs keep the war going, but what set it agoing at first ? Was it the ebony gentleman who answered the bell? Or some other ? The banks of the river are made of mud. Sections cut by small creeks show beds of yellow-gray sand, and impalpable mud, all dipping down-stream. This is river-delta work, but it is packed in a rock-groove. The town is founded on rock, which appears at the end of one of the streets, and below the town, 310 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. in a quarry; it also appears on the opposite side. In winter this river freezes, so that carts can cross. Boulders abound higher up. Here there is scarce a stone to be seen. On the cap of the quarry, next to the river and immediately above the river-plain, a section is got of the surface-beds. At about fifty feet above the river, the beds are horizontal, and the rock beneath them is water-worn limestone, with knots of gray chert. This looks like the work of still water. About forty miles below St. Louis there is a quarry of pink granite, and about twenty-five miles below the town the river is narrow and rocky, according to the account of boatmen. If a delta of mud left there has been removed by the river, it has drained a wide lake hereabouts. The country looks like it, and this looks like an ancient shore. By the help of a strong lens, some minute scratches were found on the chert in this quarry, but the shape of the surface was the shape of limestone in the bed of the Ottawa. It was full of pot-holes and honeycombed. The cap of the quarry is about twelve feet of yellowish earth and clay. To the west rise low hills, and they were selected for a day's tramp, to see the country and the fortifications. The river flows in a limestone groove, at the bottom of a larger groove, which is about 200 feet deep : that DENUDATION. 311 is to say, the highest hills about the town are 200 feet higher than the river, and from them no higher ground was visible in any direction. But at 200 feet above the river the ground is very near the level of Chicago, and not more than 50 feet below the watershed of the basin. The river cannot have been so high, for loose drift is there still. The rock shows at the brow of the hill, and it has been cut through in making roads and quarries. Fossils in the limestone project half an inch or more, and stand out like shells half-buried in sand. Accord- ing to geological slang, this is umbral or vespertine, or carboniferous limestone ; and as the coal-measures are close at hand to the east and west, some denuding engine has probably cut out a groove in the prairie in which the river now flows. That engine was not a glacier according to the marks. All the rock-surfaces are weathered or water- worn. On this foundation are beds of compact clay, with scarce a vestige of a loose stone : the few that were found, after a long search, were small bits of chert and limestone. No symptom of a boulder was discovered, and yet the moraine of the big glacier ought to be hereabouts if it ever existed. The groove does not look like river- work. That kind of denudation is well exemplified in small water-courses cut by rains in the swelling green hills about St. Louis. Every sec- 312 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. tion of a trench dug by running water in the clay is angular, like V, and the plan of it is like a gnarled oak- branch ; but the wide trench from coal-measure to coal- measure is like the Bay of Fundy when the tide is out — a plain of red mud, with leads of shallow water here and there, and a coast-line of rocks with a cap of drift. This is the shape of sea-work. On leaving St. Louis on the 8th, the road passed eastwards for 20 miles over a plain as flat as a board ; it then reached a low range of yellow limestone hills capped with sand and clay, and about 150 feet higher than the plain. This semblance of a coast-line bounded the lower plain as far as the eye could reach on a clear day. The clay on the hill-top is more than twenty feet thick, and had no apparent stratification. In a cutting near a road, it stands firm, upright as a wall ; but the rain digs into the clay, and small streams have made trenches in it more than six feet deep. If these hills had been long above w r ater the clay would all be gone — washed from the solid foundation into the Gulf of Mexico, or the wash-hand basins at the Linnel Hotel. The results of this tramp to St. Louis so far co- incided with former results, and supported the theory founded upon them. The last vestige of Greenland ice AN IRONCLAD. 313 in the Atlantic was seen about 37° 10' (see page 2) ; the last northern boulder was found about lat. 39°. The next cast was therefore organized so as to keep along near this latitude by travelling eastwards to Louisville, with the Mammoth Cave for a southern point to aim at in Kentucky. In wandering about St. Louis looking for boulders, other things intruded themselves, and had to be noticed. On the river-bank one only place appeared to be a centre of active work. It turned out to be an iron- factory, whence came the peculiar clang of clinching rivets in iron plates. Sentries with shouldered arms mounted guard at every opening; but, nevertheless, enough of a sharp snout was seen, to betray an ironclad gunboat of small proportions. Perhaps she may be in- tended for the raiders and bushwhackers and rebs who pelt the peaceable white arks in the yellow mud ; but she may be intended for other purposes. Once in the Mississippi, a steamer may go anywhere — even over the prairies, as it appears. On the hill-tops were fortifications very ugly and very like other mud edifices of their class. Near them were soldiers. They were camped under tentes cVdbri, as all the soldiers seen encamped in these regions were. They were very jolly, very noisy, very busy about cook- 314 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. ing beef, and mostly very young. Not far from them were a gang of navvies working in the clay cutting. One of these — an Englishman by his accent — advanced and began: 'Friend, are you from the Old Country?' * Yes, I am,' I said. ' I thought so/ he exclaimed. 'Well, then, will you tell me how things are in Liver- pool?' And then he opened the floodgates of his grief, and poured his sorrows into my ears. His cotton shirt was egregiously dear. He got good pay, but what was it worth when things were so dear? He thought he would go back to England, for this was a bad place to live in now. There were the soldiers on the hill there looking down at us. That one was an officer. Did he look one in that shabby hat ? — and so on. Not wishing to be mistaken for a disguised reb taking a plan of the new defences, I launched out in strong approbation of the officer and his costume, shook hands with the navvy, and departed. One of the soldiers was kind enough to accompany me part of the way home, and we conversed amicably till we got to his destination, a camp in the suburbs, and there we parted. Unless these fellows were looking after suspicious characters, no other creature in this besieged town under military law, swarming with spies, and inaccessible to peaceable travellers, took the smallest notice of ' dis here child.' SUPPER AT CARLISLE. 315 The result of the boulder-hunt to the eastward is soon told. Though the roadside was keenly watched, with the full expectation of seeing the familiar shape of a big striped stone, not one was seen between St. Louis and Louisville, on plain or in railway cutting. The road crosses a number of rivers, which flow south- wards into the Ohio, and join the Mississippi. As soon as the old coast-line (if it be one) is passed, the way rises, winding through well-wooded hills of sand and clay, containing small water-worn stones. At 180 feet above St. Louis (460 above the sea), the prairie is reached. It is a beautiful rolling country, like the best parts of fertile England, with neat villages nestling among trees, and wide tracts of corn-land stretching as far as the eye can reach. They extend to Wilmington and Chicago. After a while the road descends to 50 feet above St. Louis, and there it stays for a spell. At Carlisle the engine broke down, and there we had to stay for a spell also, waiting for a fresh horse. We had taken berths in a warm sleeping-car, and as this was Saturday night, no more trains were coming ; but as we had no food on board, all adjourned to Carlisle in search of supper before going to roost. The landlord of a little country inn was rather taken aback by this invasion of hungry men ; but he and a lot of smart girls, 316 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. who had just fed a large country company, set their shoulders to their wheel, and their hands to the frying- pans, and in ten minutes twenty or thirty ravenous travellers were munching as many good beefsteaks, and swilling hot tea. A large map of the county hung on the wall. The whole of it is rolling prairie, grass land, and woodland, disposed in long strips, which run N.E. and S.W., as do the rivers. Hill and dale, and varieties of soil and vegetation, all trend one way. According to a sharp, good-natured * native, who clearly thought I was a land speculator, boulders of granite, and of a blue stone, as big as a man's head, are found in the land. If so, they must be rare, for I saw none. There is good shooting in this district. Prairie-hens abound, ducks and geese are numerous, and three deer were brought in this morning. The rivers are flooded once a year, generally in May and June. The bottoms are very rich. The district is rich in coal. One pit was at work at the first rise, and several more were seen at work. A seam 7 feet thick was found at 250 feet below the surface, in boring an Artesian well near this place. Large fortunes have been made by purchasing land with undiscovered coal-seams hidden under the rich prairie. Any man who does not mind the chance of being drafted, may here become proprietor of a large SUNSET COLOURS. 317 coal estate for a small sum, if he has sufficient geological knowledge to select his farm in a good place. The coal- market is handy, the country pretty, and the climate excellent. A German passenger had lately come up from New Orleans ; he came in a steamer between two gunboats with guns loaded and cocked ready for fight- ing ; but there was no fight this time. Many other steamers had been fired at. He described the scenery as monotonous, and the voyage cost a week. Having supped and listened to a political discussion till sufficiently sleepy, strolled out into the frosty moon- light, and listened to the cackling of wild-geese in the air, and all the sleepy sounds of a country-town going to roost. The sunset colours this evening were most beautiful. The sky was perfectly clear, and glowed with orange and green till the dark blue and silver of a hard frosty sky sunk down upon the horizon, and put out the orange light. There is something peculiar in these American sunsets in low latitudes. We are far enough south to note the rapid change from day to night ; but that is not the only peculiarity. The European sun goes down behind a sea-horizon, and the light is reflected from the convex water-mirror, and shines through haze ; here the sun goes down behind a dry plain which does not reflect. There is a marked 318 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. difference in the colour, whatever the reason may be. There is less variety of shade, and a recurrence of the same effects night after night. Found the way to the railroad in the dark, and after stumbling over the sleepers, found the end of the shipwrecked train. Got in, and walked through the deserted cars to the sleeping- car ; turned in, and went to sleep. Dreamed of dancing furious reels in a very small house, and of the chain of the ' Ariel,' and the fore-hold of that palace on the water ; and finally awoke, to find the sun shining, and the train crawling slowly through a rolling country. The barometer was at the same level. It was a fine, sharp, frosty, cloudless morning, but there was no breakfast to be got. Passed a cutting in which were beds of sand dipping opposite ways, a shape which indicates ebb and flow. Got into an empty car, toasted myself at the stove, and thought how much I should like to eat somebody if I really were the wolf whose appetite had fallen to my share for breakfast. We got nothing all that frosty Sunday but a slice of apple-pie late in the day. The breakdown had thrown everything out of gear. Near the White Eiver the country is hilly, the rock a coarse sandstone, which forms weathered cliffs near the river. The hills are not more than 200 or 300 feet high, but well-wooded and very pretty. The THE COW-SHUNTER. 319 rail winds through the hills like an eel up to 360 feet (740 above the sea), and therefore higher than the watershed near Chicago. For a distance of 213 miles there is no symptom of glacial action, but every sign of water-work in all forms. An unfortunate woman here proved the use of the frame ahead of the engine. She was seen by the engineer sitting on the track, and the usual staccato movement on the steam-horn was performed with vigour. The woman never stirred. The engine took her on the side of the head, and the frame lifted her up and cast her into the ditch. The train stopped, and all the passengers got down and trotted back a quarter of a mile to the place where the woman lay. They clustered round her, and then the train thought it would go back too. So it snorted and screamed, and ran backwards into the thick of them. They scattered and made room, and, for a wonder, no one else was hurt. The woman was badly stunned, and her head was cut and bleeding, but no bones were broken. So she was bundled into a baggage-van and taken on to Mitchell, where she was left in charge of a landlady. No one knew anything about her, and it was surmised that she had been liquoring freely somewhere on Saturday night. From Mitchell the line runs southwards to the 320 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. Ohio, and the country is much the same. At Salem, 450 feet (830 above the sea), the rock is yellow sand- stone, clear of drift, and weathered. The country ap- pears to be a series of hollows scooped out of horizontal beds of sandstone of the coal-measures. The shape may be expressed by curved lines, thus — A tongue of land like a low promontory extends ont into the prairies westwards from the Alleghanies. The Ohio is on one side of it, Lakes Erie and Ontario on the other ; the crest of it is about lat. 41°, and the end of it near Chicago. The hollows are mere ruts dug out of it, and we have been crossing the hollows thus far. From Mitchell the road rises to 630 feet (1010), and then runs down to New Albany, on the Ohio, where the aneroid marked 150 feet above St. Louis. According to the survey, the difference between Louisville and the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri is only 20 feet. Omitting details, the present shape of the surface which covers the coal-basin in the fork of the Y made by the Ohio and Mississippi may be expressed by a curve of 340 miles ^-^ long, and 630 feet high. The rocks seem to be very little disturbed, so coal-mining CHAFF. 321 ought to be easy. A reference to Plate 8 in Johnston's 1 Physical Atlas' will show that the form of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico is repeated in miniature about the fork at Cairo. The black colour on the geological map coincides with a rise like a coast near St. Louis, and near Mitchell. The hollows look like aqueous denuda- tion ; and there is no symptom of a glacier, little or big, in this region. The Ohio is crossed in a steamer, and from the landing-place busses carry passengers to the several hotels. The water is quite as dirty as in the Mississippi, and the colour of the dirt is the same. The town is crowded with soldiers and all that belongs to war. The railroad which runs south into Kentucky is new ; it was not finished when my edition of Mitchell's ' Guide' was published ; but, as the publishers of that useful work wisely omit to date it, the date of the railroad cannot be learned from the railway guide. In July, the first thing the Halifax pilot had to tell was that gold was at some fabulous premium, and the next was that a great Southern raid was threatening Washington. When it was over, the armies near Eichinond used to chaff each other. The Eebs bellowed like bulls, and shouted, ' Bo ! have some beef, Yanks ? — Ba ! ' The Y 322 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. Yanks returned bullets, and the Eebs retorted ; and so men died for beef and chaff. On returning from the North, the war pendulum had taken another swing. Atlanta had fallen — so had gold. Nobody knew where Atlanta was, but all were agreed that it was a glorious victory. After some time, Atlanta was discovered in a map, and it seemed plain that a very disagreeable missile was in the side of the Eeb. The bullet went in by way of Louisville and the Kentucky railroad, and supplies of men and provisions followed through the wound. The most obvious remedy was to plug this hole, and extract General Sherman and his army. On this head nothing certain was to be extracted from the newspapers, but it was gradually drawn from fellow-travellers that the communications with Atlanta were in considerable danger ; that to travel on the railway was now a service of great peril ; and that the North had got a pretty considerable whipping somewhere near Salina. It further appeared that the Federals held the ground on which they stood in Kentucky, but little else even there. A gagged press would not be apt to insert stories against the rule of the ruling power ; and here are a few stories of daily life taken from one paper one morning : — THE BORDERS. 323 Louisville, Kentucky, October 13, 1864. ' Murder of an Enrolling Officer. — Captain M'Carty, formerly of the 42 d Indiana, and enrolling officer for Eeeves township, Daviess County, started, on Monday of last week, to notify the drafted men of the township. In the afternoon, while riding along the road in the south-east part of the county, he was shot by men in ambush, and, as it appears from the confes- sion of one of the conspirators, by a detachment of eighteen who banded together for this purpose. 1 After killing M'Carty, they placed the body on a sled and dragged it the distance of one and a half miles to White River, and, tying a large stone to the body, sank it in the river. His horse ran to a house not far off, and was taken up, but not recognised. ' On Tuesday, the family becoming alarmed at his protracted absence, inquiry was made in relation to his movements ; and his horse was found, and traces of blood discovered on the saddle. ' One man was arrested on suspicion of having committed the murder, but no proof of his guilt could be adduced, and he was liberated. On Thursday the place of his assassination was discovered, and the track of the sled traced to the river-bank. ' The man who had been arrested accompanied the party on the search, and when the body was dragged from the water, stricken with remorse, he burst out crying, and declared that, though his hands were clear of M'Carty's blood, his heart was not, and then proceeded to make full confession of his guilt, and of the damnable conspiracy that had been set on foot, and thus cowardly executed. Eighteen had banded together for this purpose, and on Monday, knowing of the movements of Captain M'Carty, had divided into squads and waylaid the different roads along which they supposed he would pass. Five men formed the squad that did the killing. He gave the names of the entire band, and seven of them have been arrested and sent 324 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. to Indianapolis. Captain M'Carty is represented by all who knew him as an excellent and estimable man ; and even the men who murdered him so cowardly and cruelly bore this testimony to his character.' What a popular service it must be when the people thus welcome the recruiting officer north of the Ohio ! No wonder there is a conspiracy and a political trial now going on in the Western States. Murder No. 2. ' Murder in Putnam County, Ind. — We learn that on Wednesday, the 28th ult, a most shocking murder was com- mitted in the town of Cloverdale, Putnam County, Ind. An old citizen named George Young, who was residing alone, was mur- dered by some person or persons unknown, who entered his house in the night time. The marks on the corpse indicated that he had received a blow on the back of the head with a bludgeon of some kind, and that he had also been choked. The horrible deed was not discovered by the citizens till Friday fol- lowing, when he was found lying on the floor of his house, the front door locked, and some article of furniture drawn up to the back door to keep it closed. A coroner's jury was summoned, which elicited the above facts. Mr. Young bore the reputation of being a peaceable and quiet citizen. ' Several persons of questionable standing have been missed from the neighbourhood since the murder, one of whom is known to have belonged to Morgan's raiders when they entered Indiana over a year ago. Morgan is a famous 'Gorilla' of great power and BORDERERS. 325 ferocity, according to one side ; a sucking dove of great suavity and polite demeanour, according to the other. Murder No. 3. ' Two Men Hung. — Last week two men were hung at Paris, Linn County, Kansas, for robbing a soldier's wife of over three hundred dollars. When the soldier returned home, he raised a party of citizens and caught the robbers. They were forced to reveal where they had hid the stolen money, after which they were hung.' Lynch law seems to prevail in this region. i «, Snow. — Snow fell on Friday at Indianapolis, Lafayette, and other places in the northern part of Indiana. This will account for the cool weather in this vicinity.' Pleasant weather for campaigning, and a good reason for carrying the war into the enemy's warm country ; perhaps this may account for the northern practice of burning everything. This was the whipping which individual soldiers confessed, but the papers would not : — 1 General Burbridge's Expedition. — The following facts in regard to the failure of General Burbridge's expedition into Virginia were obtained from a gentleman of Covington, who con- versed with General Burbridge during his brief stay in that city Sunday afternoon. ' General Burbridge left Lexington Ky., about two weeks since with a force of mounted men, for the purpose of destroying the extensive salt works at Saltville, Va. Upon arriving there, 326 AN AMERICAN TKAMP. he found the place strongly fortified and defended by a large rebel force, under command of Breckinridge and Echols. General Burbridge had two brisk skirmishes with the enemy, capturing two redoubts, one hundred and fifty prisoners, and a large number of horses, mules, and cattle. Our losses in the two fights were small. Colonel Mason, of the 11th Michigan, was killed, and Colonel Hanson, acting Brigadier-General, and a very brave officer, was mortally wounded. ' Finding the place too strongly fortified, and defended by a superior force, General Burbridge withdrew in the night, leaving his wounded at the farm-houses in the vicinity where the fight took place. The rebels pursued our troops about eight miles, but with what effect is not known. General Burbridge and staff arrived at Covington on Saturday afternoon, via Big Sandy river, and left immediately by special train for Lexington.' Here lies one of the Western wild-fowl — a Canard sauvage; but he proves that nigger soldiers are not popular in this region, and that is true : — 'Versailles, Oct. 9, 1864. ' To the Editors of the Louisville Journal. ' The paragraph in your paper on Friday, the 7th inst., under the caption of ' A Difficulty in Versailles,' is purely imaginary, and without the slightest foundation in fact. ' There has been no collision between the citizens and negro soldiers in Versailles, and no stringent measures adopted by the military authorities in consequence thereof. It is not true ' that negro soldiers are stationed at every corner of the streets, and have orders to disperse all gatherings of the citizens, or that only two men are permitted to stand and converse with each other on the street,' as stated by your informant. ' It is true that on Monday, the 3d inst,, a squad of negro A BREACH OF DECORUM. 327 soldiers, with arms in hand, paraded the streets after night, to the great annoyance of pedestrians, and rudely thrust aside gentle- men, and even ladies, who happened to be in their way. Now, there was no apparent necessity for this military display at such a time — there was no threatened danger from any quarter. Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that these negro troops were acting under the orders of a major in command at this post, who was drunk at the time, and not conscious of the character of his offence. The citizens, feeling justly indignant at such a breach of decorum and respect, drew up a remonstrance to head-quarters at Lexing- ton, setting forth the facts in the case, and in a very short time said officer was required to appear before his superiors and answer for the offence charged against him. ' It is not true that hostility exists on the part of the citizens toward the negro soldier, for, as a general thing, they are obedient and civil ; but the cause of complaint is against those placed in command, who are generally Dutch, rude and rustic in manners, never looked into Chesterfield, with scarcely an idea above con- verting a cabbage head into krout. Of course there are some honourable exceptions. ' With all due deference to your informant, I am induced, from a sense of justice to all parties, white and black, to make the above statement. Sam.' Here are the pleasures of war in a loyal State, and close to head-quarters : — ' Guerilla Operations near the City. — The guerillas are growing extremely bold, as their operations within a few miles of the city plainly testify. We are informed that at an early hour on Wednesday morning, a band of twenty-five armed men was on the Bardstown pike, a short distance from Louisville, engaged in committing depredations. Last night seven of the scoundrels 328 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. made a raid on the Two-Mile-House, and robbed several parties living near. One gentleman, whose name we did not learn, was relieved of his pocket-book, containing 1000 dols. The toll-gate keeper was robbed of a small amount of money. We trust that an energetic move will be made by the military authorities, which will result in the capture of the entire party of thieves. ' At an hour later than the above writing, we learn that the guerilla scoundrels lorded it completely over the highway this morning. Every person met on the road was halted and robbed. A great commotion existed among the marketmen and milkmen, as the robbers paid particular attention to them. Mr. I. M. Hornsby was halted by five of the desperadoes, four and a half miles from the city. They presented cocked pistols at his head, and forced him to hand over his purse, containing 300 dols., and a fine gold watch. They then unharnessed his horse, and left him on the highway, quietly sitting in his buggy. The last he saw of the thieves, they were riding down the Taylorsville Eoad. From other parties we learn that they robbed the toll-gate keeper on this road, and he (the keeper) says, threatened to kill him. He is an old grey-headed man, and we would have thought that his silver hairs would have commanded respect. The robbers did not respect his age. He was beaten over the head with the butt of a pistol, and otherwise roughly handled. ' Five miles from the city, on the Taylorsville Road, Mr. S. Gibson, of Shelby County, who was coming to Louisville on horseback, was halted and robbed of 556 dols. in money. As he neared the city he overtook men on foot, on horseback, and in waggons and buggies, who reported themselves as victims of this wholesale robbery. The guerillas addressed their leader as Captain Furgueson. It is a shame that so daring a band of robbers should be allowed to approach so near the city and practise so many outrages.' So there was irritation about this wound in the side ' GORILLS.' 329 of poor old Kentucky, and her Southern friends were striving to plug the wound. The state of military affairs, as it appeared, was not then favourable for the North, or for travelling from North to South. The Atlanta raid was going the way of the Southern raid — back again ; and the draft was not going on quite as well as might be wished in the Western States. What is the cause of all this evil ; this making and shedding of ill-blood % If it is not the dead pig, the pro- vision trade, and pelf, is it philanthropy and the live nigger ? The ladies of Louisville are famed for their beauty throughout the States, as I am told. English and French damsels are as fair, so far as I have been able to ascertain. Shortly before leaving England, a fair young English girl arrived from France with the French polish of the most select French millinery added to her numer- ous charms. The newest of the French novelties brought to bear upon dazzled male Eebs by this fair young damsel arrayed for conquest, was a black silken coat with a white lining, shaped like a man's evening swallow-tail, but adorned with sundry frills and ruches set round the borders, which made it a truly feminine garment of great elegance. No such garment had ever 330 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. delighted male eyes before, and certainly no such gar- ment ever was seen behind the Alleghany Mountains, as I supposed. One of the first things seen in Louis- ville was the outward form of the frilled swallow-tail coat, which was new in London in July. This specimen of art was sky-blue, and beautifully made ; so was a silken gown, so was a bonnet with a garden of flowers and a nodding plume, so was a parasol over all. The wearer was slight and graceful, and carried herself and her silken train with a light tripping gait. It was impossible to resist trying for a peep at the face of the most beautiful of the beauties of Louisville, in the Parisian fashion of the fairest of London ladies. Slid- ing off the pavement not to seem impertinent, I strode through the dust, got ahead, turned incidentally to look at a shop window, and saw — a nigger. She was a regular darky, with blubber lips, disguised as ' the girl I left behind me.' As I was going down de street, Down de street, down de street, A dark fair sex I chanced to meet — and there she walked on, ogling, this < dark gal dressed in blue.' Is this the triumphant Bellona, the type of her race, causa teterrima belli, the Helen of the American war? HELEN. 331 Are free men drafted to free enslaved niggers? The records of every-day life tell a different tale — ' Diabolical Murder in Henderson County. — The Owens- boro Monitor of Wednesday says : — * Mr. Charles Winfrey, a wealthy and highly respected citizen of Henderson county, was murdered last week under the follow- ing circumstances, as related to us. — -A party of nine men, who had been drafted in Indiana, went to Mr. Winfrey's residence and tried to persuade or steal from their master a sufficient number of negro men to relieve them from the draft. They made several attempts to accomplish their purpose, but the negroes could not be induced to leave. They also tried to intimidate Mr. W. by telling him they had an order from Colonel Moon, who commands at this post, for the negroes for military duty, but this had no effect. They then left. Mr. Winfrey called his servants together and told them that these men would make their appearance again, and if they did not desire to go they would have to assist him in defending themselves. This they readily assented to do, and a signal was to be given by which they would be called to the main building. A noise being heard on the premises the same night, Mr. Winfrey got up and opened a side door to give the alarm, when he was shot by a man named Peyton formerly of Henderson county, who was concealed near the door, killing him almost instantly. A man by the name of Pipes, and another named Holder, were among the accomplices. They immediately fled to the opposite side of the river, and have not as yet been arrested. As an evidence of attachment existing between Mr. Winfrey and his servants, we will state that at the beginning of the war Mr. Winfrey divided a large sum of money among his servants and bade them take and conceal it, which they did, and after he was killed, as we are informed, 6O00 dols. in gold and silver were brought by these 332 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. faithful negroes and delivered over to the proper person to receive his effects.' Nigger recruits are stolen or taken, but they would rather be household slaves than be shot. It is sweet and decorous to die for country, but dis- agreeable to be made to die for a drafted somebody else, who, as the song has it, ' doesn't want to go.' Theoretically, the North is fighting to free niggers ; practically, it is doing nothing of the sort. Here are more crumbs of daily bread : — 'Police Proceedings. — Wednesday, Oct 11, 1^64. — Thomas Moore, drunk and disorderly conduct. Three dollars fine. ' J. R. McGee, drunk and disorderly conduct. Three dollars fine. ' William Demph, disorderly conduct. Three dollars fine. ' Mary Henley, drunk and disorderly conduct. One hundred dollars bond for two months. 1 Sarah Ganaghty, drunk and disorderly conduct. One hun- dred dollars bond for one month. * Butler Smith, charged with aiding Bill, a slave of Guntcher- man, to escape. Continued. ' James Manning and Julia Manning, charged with stealing towels, sheets, &c, from J. R. Nesbith, worth over four dollars. James discharged, Julia three hundred dollars to answer. ' Elijah Bremer, fast driving. Fined five dollars. ' Thos. Kincholow, shooting Mary Dolan with intent to kill. Four hundred dollars to answer. 'William, a slave of John Summers, stealing a horse and wagon from Mr. Rogers. William being a drafted man was handed over to the military. FREEDOM. 333 ' John CoogrifF, stabbing Pat. Flaherty with intent to kill Continued. ' Henry, slave of Mr. Marshall, stealing a coat from a soldier. Discharged.' ' Coekim non animam mutant qui trans mare currunt :' — poor Pat is drunk and disorderly, but three cases of slavery in one morning do not look very free. As there are no old scratches in this district, atten- tion was directed to black men, and a trip was organ- ised for the Mammoth Cave and the lower regions. Not wishing to get involved in the fight which was coming, we went no further on Tom Tiddler's ground. Here is a sample of stories told by men who had lately travelled through the conquered country in Southern bounds, which all described as a howling wilderness of blackened houses, burned fences, and ruined farms, with a population of soldiers, guerillas, and ruined angry hungry men. ' The Raid on the Lexington Railroad. — From a gentle- man who was a passenger on the Kentucky Central Railroad, captured eight miles from Lexington on Tuesday morning, we learn the particulars of the raid. About 7 o'clock in the morn- ing the train was thrown from the track by an obstruction placed upon the road. The cars were immediately surrounded by thirty armed men dressed in Confederate uniform, under the command of Captain Pete Everett. ' The passengers were ordered from the trains, and permitted to secure their baggage. As a general thing, private property 334 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. was respected. The Mail Agent preserved the most of the mail under his charge, and carried it safely to Lexington. But one bag, as far as our informant could learn, was cut open and rifled. One of the guerillas took a watch from the conductor, but as soon as the loss was made known to Everett, Pete promptly ordered the watch to be returned to the owner. 'The Express safe was opened and robbed of packages of money to the amount of two thousand three hundred dollars. The private papers of the Company were not molested. Everett claimed that the robbing of the safe was strictly against his orders, and told the messenger that, if he would point out the man guilty of the act, he would make him refund the money, and would punish him for disobedience of orders. ' The messenger was unable to point out the robber, and therefore the passengers could not determine whether Pete was sincere in what he said or not. Everett claimed that he did not capture the train for plunder. He said that he expected to find General Burbridge and staff aboard, which was the only induce- ment he had in making the raid. He said that he had been watching the road for three days, in hopes of capturing the General. ' The cars — three passenger, and the express and baggage — were set on fire and burned to the ground. The locomotive and tender were uninjured. Three Federal officers were cap- tured on board the train and carried off as prisoners of war. We did not learn their names. The guerillas left in the direc- tion of Mount Sterling. They told the passengers, in taking their departure, that they were the advance of a large force of rebels under Breckinridge, who was now in the State. This announcement was made with an air of bravado, and, as a matter of course, is regarded as nothing but a monstrous stretch of the truth.' Having gone as far underground as possible — having THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 335 reached the Styx and Lethe with a black man for guide, and having got safe out of the mess, the cause of the American war seemed deeper and darker than ever. This great country is shedding white blood to wipe out the dark stain of black slavery, as it appears. I have now seen something of the result. Some days ago I spent a long morning with a very intelligent darky, who had a white twilight glimmering through his shiny skin. Having gained his confidence ' some,' I ventured to ask if he was a free man. ' No/ he said, with the echo of sorrow in his voice, ' I belong to a man in Nash- ville (a town now held by the North) ; and while you are here, I belong to you. I am hired out to do this.' ' And do they give you anything for your work V ' No, sir, nothing.' The answer made the blood of a free- born citizen glow, and drew a tip of course. That same day I saw a spirit-stirring sight. At the edge of a tall forest, just beginning to turn from green to scarlet, beside a still pool of clear water, smooth as a mirror, under a bright blue sky, with the glorious hot October sun of these Southern regions glowing on the autumn leaves, a nigger regiment had pitched a snowy camp, and the bright sun glittered on the steel of their weapons, as it might gleam from the helm of a knight. The slaves had taken up arms to fight for liberty. The 336 AN AMERICAN TRAMP. officer in command poked his ebony phiz out of an ivory- white tent, when I doffed my battered tile, and gave me leave to inspect his troops thus : — ' You men, let dis man walk about.' Hurrah for liberty and equality ! We were ' men' and brothers. I walked about and looked. One fellow as black as my boot was playing Scotch reels on a fiddle ; another was strumming on a banjo ; a great many were singing and playing at vari- ous games ; some were hacking beef, others cooking it round a glorious camp-fire ; everybody was munching, and grinning, and chattering. One only seemed out of humour with his work, and he was splitting firewood by driving his fixed bayonet into a log, and ramming it home against the ground. It was a glorious happy picnic of idle thoughtless beings ; and, though the log-practice was bad for the weapon, it might teach the soldier to strike home for freedom. It was a picturesque sight, and one to make free blood stir. But this Eembrandt-brown picture, with the glittering high lights in the foreground, had deep shadows in the background. All is not gold that glitters. I thought of the drafted men who stole niggers for substitutes, and of the slave in the police report who was handed over to the military authorities. At railway stations it was ordered in large print * HOBSON'S CHOICE.' 337 that co cs t»»r- 1 >o „co a o go 03 "^ . C ffrH o fe a Deg. > S CO S3 §© ^ gEo p^>i — i ^ o 2 m Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. January . 37-3 377 36-9 36-6 367 — 0-8 February . 39-2 38-1 37-5 38-6 38-6 — 2-2 March 41-8 40-9 41-5 42-1 421 — 1-8 April 44-8 45-9 47-6 47-3 47'1 + 0-9 May 53-4 50-8 54-3 531 53-1 + 1-8 June 57-2 58-4 59-0 587 58-6 — 1-1 July 59-1 61-1 60-9 61'3 611 — 1-0 August . 59-4 60-6 597 60-3 60-2 — 1-2 September 54-7 59-6 55-8 56-6 56-4 — l'O October . 50-5 48-8 47-4 49-4 49-5 + 0-6 November 40-5 41-0 42-8 42-4 42-2 — 0-9 December Mean . 397 39-1 39-3 39-2 39-2 — 1-3 48-2 48-0 48-6 48-8 48-7 — 0-6 REMARKS ON THE YEAR. The temperature for the year 1864 was 0*6 deg. lower than the average of the past 55 years, being colder in every month except April, May, and October ; April was 2'2 deg. colder than the average, and May 1*8 deg. warmer. The amount of rain was 8*1 in. below the average of the last 406 APPENDIX. 20 years, being less in all months except January, February, April, and November. There was also a much less number of wet days. The tables explain themselves. E. J. Lowe. Observatory, Higlifield House, Jan. 2. In Canada the season was unusually dry. In New- foundland and Labrador, unusually foggy and cold. A great deal of ice came down from the northern regions far more than usual. The Gulf Stream appears to have come further north, as drift-weed and flying-fish were seen in warm water, nearer to Cape Eace than usual. To this comparison of weather on shore may be added the temperatures of water in the Atlantic in 1864, copied from the log of the ' Persia/ by the kind permission of her captain. If any one cares enough about the subject, the table may be made into a diagram, by treating vertical lines in a sheet of section paper as meridians in a map, and horizontal lines as the scale of a thermometer. The result is horizontal, or nearly horizontal, lines of WEATHER IN 1864. 407 temperature, dipping suddenly about one particular re- gion, and rising when that region is passed, thus — v The V is the Arctic Current on its way south, the rest is still water or the Gulf Stream on its way north. The climates on opposite coasts depend on the course of these two, and they are as easily shunted as a mill- stream with a sufficient dam. I believe that the ' glacial period ' now exists, that 1 boulder-clay' is forming in the Atlantic, and that ' boulder-clay ' was formed elsewhere in old arctic currents, like the cold Atlantic stream which now washes the Labrador. To see it was THE END OF THIS TRAMP. No. II.— TABLE OF DISTANCES The following TABLE of DISTANCES may have some interest. July 9 19 „ 20, 21 n 22 > 23 25 31 Aug. 1,2 13 16, 20 52 days 24 at sea. Sept. Oct. 29 31 2 6 22 26 28 6 9 V ' Ariel' Liverpool to Cape Race Lg liropa ; „ to Halifax ) To Windsor and back, rail To Sydney } , p^, To St. John s j To Labrador The Labrador, up do down Lansaloup Belleisle St. John's To Colinet and back At Colinet, about At St. John's, about . To Halifax, about To St. John, KB. Fredericton and St. John to Portland . ( To Montreal . \ "White Mountains, about In Canada, about Niagara to Buffalo Buffalo to Chicago Chicago to St. Louis . St. Louis to Louisville Miles. Miles. 1850 660 2,510 80 2,590 330 2,920 540 3,460 480 3,940 180 4,120 180 4,300 60 4,360 60 4,420 480 4,900 120 5,020 20 5,040 30 5,070 870 5,940 278 6,218 200 6,418 260 6,678 294 6,972 50 7,022 1100 8,122 24 8,146 542 8,688 288 8,976 342 9,318 TABLE OF DISTANCES. 409 Oct. Nov. 12 15 15 17 21 24 28 28 31 1 2 10 14 15) 26 f To Cave City and back To Cincinnati by river To Indianapolis To Layfayette To Michigan City To Chicago To Pittsburg . At Pittsburg, about To Harrisburg At Harrisburg To Baltimore To Washington At Washington To Baltimore To Philadelphia To New York At New York To Boston, about At Boston, about To Albany To New York . At Catskill, about To Liverpool Miles. 250 150 112 64 91 50 468 20 249 40 82 40 50 40 98 90 20 230 50 200 144 50 3000 Miles. 9,568 9,718 9,830 9,894 9,985 10,035 10,503 10,523 10,772 10,812 10,894 10,934 10,984 11,024 11,122 11,212 11,232 11,462 11,512 11,712 11,856 11,906 14,906 The distance travelled was more than 14,800 miles in 142 days at a cost of £180, which sum includes the fares between London and Liverpool, and sundry purchases. '." No. III. — Temperature of the Water, taken every Foui of the Tenipei New York, 72° 43' 65° 20' Passed a r Clo 58° 03' iece of ice. udy. Lat. 42° 40' 50" 45' April 6. 44 44 43 42 40 41 40 50 52 52 50 42 49 46 38 42 46 44 33 39 44 April 20. 69° 24' 63" 07' . 56° 56' 50° 28' 41 41 40 41 41 41 42 41 40 50 52 51 56 54 54 56 59 62 57 56 60 5S 57 56 52 Air, 84°. New York, Aug. 11. 70° 35' SO 70 75 74 74 70 61 64 63° 69' 61 66 76 70 66 66 57° 10' 62 66 71 70 67 70 Lat. 42° 50' 50° 10' 70 64 66 56 60 64 ' Dense Fog. New York, 68° 24 62° 07' 55° 46' 49° 23' Aug. 24. 78 72 74 72 58 60 66 68 68 60 70 66 67 67 64 64 64 61 62 61 57 Dense Fog. 56 56 56 53 50 56 1 Fog. with the Longitude at noon ; to show the Approximate Position From the Loo- of the ( Persia,' 1864. 1864, 37° 33' . 30° 58' 25° 17' 19° 13' 13° 19' March 27. ; 56 56 56 54 50 50 50 50 50 52 51 50 50 50 51 51 51 52 53 53 46 45 37° 05' 29° 58' 22° 22' 14° or 1 53 52 53 53 54 52 52 52 52 52 52 53 5] 49 49 46 46 45 38° 13' 31° 36' 25° 43' 19° 07' 12° 11' August 1. .7 68 66 64 65 66 58 60 60 60 60 60 60 62 60 60 60 62 60 60 61 60 62 62 60 61 60 60 61 60 58 36° 18' 28° 33' 20° 02' 11° 15' Sept. 3. ] 65 63 65 64 62 58 63 62 61 64 61 57 64 62 60 58 62 62 62 61 62 63 64 62 61 60 59 INDEX. Abattoir at Chicago, 281-283 Accident (Railway) at Richmond, 227 Adams (Mount), one of the White Moun- tains, 210 Adams (Mount), near Cincinnati, 367 Adirondak Mountains, 226, 229, 395 Admiral of wood-raft on Canadian rivers, 248^ ' Africa ' on homeward voyage, 35 African trade, 381 African Travel (late Books of), on habits of natives, 380 Agassiz on views of most advanced school of glacialists, 21-25 Alabama, first lieutenant and crew of, 35 Alleghany Mountains, length of the chain and highest points, 6 America, physical geography of, 6-19 ; submerged, testing of the theory, 5-14 ; must have been flowed over by arctic current, 344 Americans improved by the discipline of the army, 203, 204 American Tickle, a small island 99 ; raised beach, 100 Amphibious character of inhabitants of Newfoundland, 123 Amsterdam, Chicago in its water-streets resembles, 277 Anchor-ice, 81 Anderson (Capt.) has never seen a stone on a berg, 111 Androscoggin River, 198 Aneroids (pocket), 194, 198 Anglo-Saxon beauty in Canada, 243 Animals of Kentucky caves, 349, 350 Antennse (long) of cave crickets, 349 Archaeology of Denmark and Switzerland illustrated by Labrador, 106 Archipelago, New Brunswick once one, 173 Architecture in Labrador, 104, 105 Arctic ice, old, 75 Arctic current, reasons why an ancient current flowed over British Islands, 4 ; spoor of, 84 ; influence of, 85 ; its course, S6 ; causes arctic climate, 95 ; supposed marks left by, 215 Argyll, scene recalled by Highland women in Canada, 244 ' Ariel ' steamer, bad condition of, 52, 53 Army (American) in the field, 355 Atlanta, news about fall of, 322 Atlantic, spots in that ocean where ice has been seen, 3 Atlantic coast of N. America, & 'Atlantic Monthly Magazine' for 1864, quoted for opinion of Agassiz on glacier action in America, 23, 24 Atmospheric circulation, etc., of Ken- tucky caves, 350 Auk (great) once found at Funk Islands, 115 Aurora observed in Labrador, 91 Axis, supposed change in earth's, 29 Azoic rocks to the North of St. Lawrence, 19 ; nature of, 20 Backwoodsmen bound for home, 246 Bacon chamber, Kentucky, 340 Bacon-curing at Chicago, 283 Ball (Celtic) in Canada, 244 ; in Mammoth Cave, 352 Ballantyne's ' Every -day Life in the Woods of N. America ' quoted, 168-170 Baltimore oysters, 16 Banks off N. American shore in constant movement, 7 Barnacles at Green's Pond, 61 ; Labrador coast, 75 Barometer falling, a severe storm, 115 Barra, Higlander from, in Cape Breton, 49 Basins of American central region, 10 Basket, price of an Indian, 167 Basque language somewhat resembles Indian language of New Brunswick, 163 Bateaux, fishing settlement, 79 Bath in miniature rapids at Niagara, 253 Bats of Kentucky caves, 349 ; bones found in caves of Kentucky, 344 Battle Harbour, Labrador, 68, 103 414 INDEX. Battle of life in Canada, 247 Baunigarten on a bed of Arctic shells on Snowdon, 4 Bay-ice, Labrador, 74 ; boulders among, 153 ; wharf at Sydney destroyed by, 153 Beach-stones and' shells at Henley Har- bour, 107 Beaver, a tame one, its habits, 164 Beaver-houses in Newfoundland 137-139 ; Beaver-root, the root of the yellow lily, 138, 140 Beavers and their settlements, 137-139 ; movements of beaver, 139, 140 Bears, two tame ones, their habits, 164 ; kept at public houses in White Moun- tains, 21S, 219 Beggar, the only one seen in Canada, 251 Bells (blue) at Toulinguet, 112 Belleisle from Henley Harbour, 106 Belleisle (Straits of), currents in, 110 ; terraced red cliff in, one resembling, 396 Ben Lomond, cluster of hills in U.S. resembling, 188 Bethel (West), gravel terraces at, 197 Betula nana in Labrador, 91 Betting at Louisville, managed by Irish- man, 360 Bills of fare at Indianapolis, 368; at Chicago, 390 Bills stuck on rocks, 220 Birch-bark canoe, 167 Birch trees used by beavers in constructing their dams, 138 Birds that may be shot at Wilmington, 293 Bittern, a young one caught, 143 Black Dome, N. Carolina, height of, 6 Black flies (Simulium) in Newfoundland, 136 Blackrock, Buffalo, ice-marks at, 260 Blasphemy, perverted ingenuity about American, 270 Block of ice, breaking up, 72, 73 Blockade runners on board steamer, 178 Blocks of granite at Lans-a-loup above sea-level, 112 ; of granite in mud at Monkton, 157 ; of greenstone and granite , near Fredericton, 165; (polished) at Port- land, 185 Blubber of seals, 149 Bluff (Cape), cod-seine at work, 101 Bone instruments of Esquimaux, 105 Bones on kitchen-middens, 105 Boston, rival processions at, 392 Bottomless pit, Kentucky, 345 Boulder at suspension bridge, Niagara, 255 ; at Luna island, 256 Boulders near the great American Lakes, 18 ; their story, 19 ; of old Canadian azoic rock, very conspicuous, 21 ; fight about, 23 ; (granite) on shore of Bay of Fundy, 45 ; in Newfoundland, great numbers of, 128 ; at Sydney, 152 ; seen by an engineer in bay-ice, 153; at Fre- dericton, probably from Labrador and Newfoundland, 165, 166 ; (Laurentian) in beds at Ottawa, 241 ; in country between Toledo and Chicago, 272 ; on banks of Kankakee, 291, 292 ; want of, at St. Louis, 311, 315 ; on watershed of Ohio and St. Lawrence, 394 Boulder-terraces near West Paris, 197 ; among White Mountains, 211 ' Bread-basket of the world,' 297 Breakers off Newfoundland, 115 Breakfast on board the ' Ariel,' 117 Breakwater (Plymouth), beaver dam shaped like, 13S Breenan (Ned), a Newfoundland driver, 128 ; fish with him, 134 Breton (Cape), vegetation of, resembles that of Scandinavia, 47 ; fisheries and mines worked by Yankees, 48 Bridge between houses at Toulingiiet and shore damaged by rioters, 114 ; biggest in world, 226 Bridges, rotten ones on road to White Mountains, 207 Brig Harbour, plenty of fish in, origin of saying, 123 Britain (Little), Wilmington, why so called, 293 Brockville, cockles found at, 15 ; cockle- shells and boulders at, 232 ; polished rock of gray quartz, 237 ; ice marks and tor at, 242 Bruce takes ship over a tarbert, 304 Bruin, cunning of one kept at a public house at Glen House, 219 Bryant's Pond, terrace of beach stones at, 197 Buffalo, rocks and drift, 260, 264 ; dam at, its effects in case of a war, 262 ; picture gallery, and play at, 262, 263 Buffalo-robe, use of, 295 Bull (water), existence of one believed in by the Celts, 129 Buonavista, 56; lightning and rain at, 15 Burbridge's (General) expedition, from newspaper, 325 Burrowing effect of water at Niagara, 259 Bush-fighting in America, 356 Bushwhackers destroying railroads ami shooting negroes, 339 Business (following a), difference in old and new countries, 304 Butchers (pig) at Chicago, 2S1-283 Camera picture on ice when river was frozen at Quebec, 239 Camp manners outshine country manners, 203 ; of Negro regiments, 335, 336 Canada, season of 1864 very hot, dry, and clear ; once at the bottom of a gulf like the Baltic, 23S Canadian * azoic ' rock, fragment of, very conspicuous amongst more recent rocks, 21 ; colonists, peculiarities of, 242 ; ter- INDEX. 415 ritory, cultivated slopes, 225 ; rivers, lessons they teach geologists, 235 Cannibalism, story of a negro-nurse. 378, 379 Canoe, a birch -bark one, 166 ; an Indian girl's navigation of one, 167 Cape Bluff, Labrador, 74 Cape Charles, Labrador, 68 Caj>e Clear passed, 33 Cape Fear, extract from article on defences of, 7 Cape Race, climate compared with that of La Rochelle, 95 Caplins, fishing for, 86, males and females in separate shoals, 87 Captain taken by the 'Alabama,' his sorrows, 35 ; his skill and attention, 117 ; a gallant one who saved a ship in the Gulf-stream, 153 Carpenters at Quebec, every man, woman, and child seem to be, 249 Carlisle, engine breaks down at, 315, landlord at, 316 Carolina (N) coast, changes on, 7 Carrion, taint of, drives deer from ground, 142 Carter Ridge, White Mountains, 211 Carver's 'Travels in 1766,' 7, 8; quoted, 250, 252 Catalina, ice extended 140 miles from coast, 56 ' Cats delight,' a Highland proverb, 245 Catskill mountains, 395, snow on, 397 Cattle on railway lines, how warned off, 196 Cattle-trains on railways, 279 Caves in old Kentucky, 344, 354 Central region of America, two great basins, 10 Chalk and chalk-flints picked up, 87 Champlain (Lake), sea-shells on borders of, 233 Changes (great) in Canada since Captain Carver's time, 250 Char hooked in a Labrador lake, 91 Charred stumps in fields, 273 Chaudiere river-, 231 Cheer (English) and Irish yell contrasted, 366 Chemung formation, Devonian of English geologists, 265 Cheques for luggage in America, 191 ; might be copied advantageously in Britain, 192 Chester (Vale of), country resembling, _ 189 Chicago, highest step to the westward, 234 ; echoes of meeting about draft, 275 ; situated in the swamp, 276 ; un- like any other place in the world, 277, 285 ; war has moved provision trade from St. Louis to, 307 ; bill of fare at, 390 Chili, terraces along the coast, 34 ; ob- servatory is affected by heat, 34 Christiania i Fjord, Norway, river and country in N. Brunswick compared to, 161 Chronometer (geological), Niagara Falls as a, 258 Churches and graveyards, country with- out old, 273 Churchyard at Green's Pond encroached on by the sea, 60 Cigar, cost of, 190 Cincinnati, situation of, 367 City in Mammoth Cave, 354 Civil war, crimes the offspring of, 380 Civilisation, a mere varnish in France, 379 Clay (Mount), one of White Mountains, 210 Clay near St. Louis, peculiarities of, 312 Clay-beds above weathered limestone, 342 Clergymen (Scotch) and Scottish judge at a country inn, 268 Cliff in Newfoundland, steamer danger- ously near, 109 ; at Niagara, action of water and ice on, 259 Cliffs (fantastic), at Lans-a-loup, 108 Climate, how affected by depression, 12 ; of N. America, supposed change of, 28 ; of Labrador, 67 ; particulars of, 74 ; of New Brunswick, 172 ; registered by vegetation, 211 Clouds seemingly lowered to sea-level, 39 Coal near Carlisle, 316 ; a hint to specu- lators, 317 ; basin in fork of Ohio and Mississippi, 320; measures, Cape Breton, fine section, 47; mine, Cape Breton, temperature of, 50 Coalpits, Cape Breton, 152 Coast of Labrador, rising, 77 ; rate of, 78 ; rising from Cape Race to Cape Harri- son, 8 ; line (ancient) traces of, 312 ; traces of an ancient, 395 Coat, black silk coat with white lining at Louisville, 329 Cockles found by Irishman at Brockville in digging a well, 15, 232 Cockney (American) among White Moun- tains, 208, 209 Cod, disappearance of attributed to ice, 56 ; on Labrador coast, splitting of, 89 ; fished for off Labrador when ice br-eaks up, 122 ; abounded in Straits of Belle- isle in 1863, scarce in 1864, 123 Cod-fishing boat towed by steamer, 114 Cod-heads, potatoes and pot-herbs flour- ishing among, 61 Cod-seine at work, 101 Cod and haddocks caught, 152 Cold (greatest) during last six years, 402 Colinet, drive to, 128, 133 ; ferry over river, 134 416 INDEX. Colony of Cape Breton, Highlanders from Uist, etc., 48 Colour of water at Niagara Falls, 259 Commerce of Newfoundland, 123 Conception Bay, iceberg aground, 55 ; ice-island with large stones, 81 Conglomerate boulders, Eddington, 26 Congregation of Negroes, 372 Connecticut (valley of), 224, 225 Conversation of passengers ashore, 119 Coon or racoon, a tame one, 164 Copper district, 303 Cork, author searches for but does not find ice-marks near, 33 1 Corrie ' in White Mountains, 215 Cotton taxed, 187 Couthony, Capt. , icebergs seen by, 2, 3 Cows, apparatus for shunting them out of the way of trains, 196 ' Crag and tail,' case of, 83 Crawfish, eyeless, of Kentucky caves, 349 Creepers in hard-wood forest, Kentucky, 355 Crews of vessels crushed by ice, are saved, 113 ; of Canadian wood-rafts, 248 Crickets of Kentucky caves, 349 Crossing America, shortest and easiest way, 303 Cudgels from woods at Niagara, 258 * Cultivated ' trees in Nova Scotia, 155 Cultivation in Nova Scotia, 156 Current, rate and direction of, 77 Currents changed by every depression and elevation of land, 8 ; in Straits of Belle- isle, 110. See Arctic and Ice currents Cuttings on Halifax railway, 954 Dam constructed by beavers, 138; how they protect dams, 141 ; at Buffalo, harm it would do to an enemy, 262 Damsels in oil regions about Lake Erie, and their answer to admirers, 266 Dana on glacial theory, 24 ; ' Geology' re ferred to, 222, 223, 232, 236, 273 Dance, story of an American country dam- sel at a, 353 ; of Negroes at Pittsburg, 372 ; in Mammoth Cave, 352, 353 Danger of the pursuit of seals, 64 Danube wood-floats nothing to those on Canadian rivers, 248 Dartmoor and Cornwall, country resem- bling, 83 Davis, a deer-hunter and poacher, his fa- mily, 134 ; himself, 135 Dead Island, fishing-boats close to ice, 101 Deals made at saw-mill in Canada, 249 Deer-shooting in Newfoundland, 141 ; tracks in Newfoundland, 136 • Delta ' steamer, 46 ; in Sydney harbour from W. Indies, 152 Denmark and Switzerland, archaeology il- lustrated by Labrador, 106 Denudation caused by ice, 68 ; effected by Mississippi river, 306 ; by supposed sea- work, 311-312 ; caused by rain-water, 388 Depression of 100 feet, effects of, on New- foundland, etc., 9 ; of 600 feet, effects of, on British North America, etc., 9, 10; of 700 feet, effects of, on America, 10, 11 ; of 2000 or 3000 feet, effects of, on N. America, 12 Derby race described by Frenchman, 359 Devonian rocks at Buffalo, 265 Devonshire, country between Louisville and Cave City resembles, 341 Digging for gold in Australia, 40 Dining, Yankee haste in, 267 Dinner on board the steamer 'Europa,' 32 ; a rush for, 267 ; at railway station, 299 ; on board Ohio steamer, 365 Direction of ice-movement at Portland, 185 Disadvantages, some, of American rail- way travelling, 195 Discipline, civilising effect of, 203 Discomforts on board steamer, 116 Dispensation to fish on a Saint's day, 109 Distances, table of, gone over in this book by the author. See Table at end. Divining-rod of a treasure-seeker, 57 Doctor, American, and military hospitals, 356, 357 Dog, a sporting one, 107 Dogs howling like wolves, 58; Newfound- land dogs, 59 Dog-rose in Newfoundland, 133 Domestic animals, brought to Labrador in spring, and killed in the fall, 87 Domino, boats fishing, 79 Dorsetshire man in Labrador, hospitality of, 70 'Double-bedded room' at Toledo Station Hotel, 271 Draft, Irishman liable to the, 187; for the war at Chicago, 275 ; why submitted to by Western States, 308 Draining (probable) of the American Lakes, 259 Drawing in a sketch-book, a good bait to get information from onlookers, 253 'Drawn' men at Railway Station, 297, 300 Dress of Negroes at church, 273 • Dressed rocks' of Scotch geologists, 22 Drift, where carried to by ice, 4 ; section of between Chicago and St. Louis, 291, 292; (heavy) in the Atlantic, 159; stones on Mount Washington, 212, 213 Drift-terrace, Mount Washington, 17, and on sides of Grand Trunk Railway, 17, 18; Lake Superior, 18; on Canadian side, 225 Drivers, American, 206, 207 Driving Reindeer in Newfoundland, 142 Drysdale (Mr.) on an ice-island covered with large stones, 81 INDEX. 417 Earthquake in Chili, sound and motion, 34 Eastport, Maine, United States, 179; cap- tured blockade-runners at, 180 Eastporters, though Yankees, much like Britishers, 180 Echo river, eyeless fish and craw-fish of, 349 Election of President, trying railway pas- sengers, 268 Electioneering in America, 391 Elevation of land supposed to have pro- duced large local glaciers, 29 1 Elevator,' Chicago, 278, 279 Elsinore may yet he the Quebec of the Baltic, 235 Emigrants to Cape Breton, who they should be, 48; (Highland) flourish in Canada, 245 Encroachment of sea at Green's Pond, 60, 61 Engine at Chicago for killing pigs, 282 ; tame railway engines in Chicago, 278 Engineering of beavers, 139 England, likeness and dissimilarity of country between Toledo and Chicago to, 271 English girl at Louisville, 329 ; maiden in Canada, 243 ; luggage system bad when compared with American, 192 Enthusiast, a Spanish surgeon, 254 Erie (Lake), height above sea, 280 ; effects of a rise of 50 feet, 262 Eruption, a probable submarine, 111 Esquimaux islands 93; boat, 103; men described and compared with Lapps, 104; fisher, 71 ; woman on swearing of American whalers, 270 Ethnology (American), teachings of rocks, 220 'Europa,' the steamer, 30; arrangements on board, 31, 32 ; amusements, 33 European glaciation may be accounted for, 86 Exaggeration about Federal loss at St. Louis, 294 Exploits, River of, 64 ; sea shells in raised beach, 78 Expressiveness of old names of mountains, 212 Eyeless fish of Kentucky caves, 349 Faction-fight, an Irish one in Canada, 243 ' Fall,' a mark to Geologists, 236 'Falls' (the), River St. John, 161 ; at Ot- tawa, 250 False news about the war, 274 Fare, omnibus fare at Portland, 184 'Farm,' size of 'farm' over which author shot, 287 Farming at Cape Breton, 4S, 49 ; in worse climate than the native country of emigrants, 50, 51 ; in New Brunswick, first step, 173 ; in Canada, Highlanders adapted for, 245 Faroe, rock at Ottawa a miniature of shapes in, 241 Fat Man's Misery, Kentucky, 346 Features (marked) of Canadian landscape, 248 Feet (small).of pure Indian breeds, 246 Fellow-travellers, on American rail, 199 Field-produce in Newfoundland, 132 Fire-brigade, an amateur, 274 Fire-engine contest at Crystal Palace, swearing of New Yorkers at, 270 Fish curing in Labrador, 69, 70 ; a fair take of, 112 ; driven off coast by ice, 75 ; (eyeless) of Kentucky caves, 349 ; splitting on Labrador coast, 88, 89 ; manure, stench of, 131, 145 Fishermen blown off coast, 114 ; High- landers not adapted for the life, 245 Fishing stages, Labrador, 69; at Quidi Vidi, 146-148 Fishing in Newfoundland river, 134 Flake, a fish-stago: so called in New- foundland, 148 ; large flakes, 149 Flesh-feeders versus Fish-eaters, 104 Flies in Newfoundland, 133 ; the various kinds of fly pests, 136 Flint Islands, 47 Fying-fish and gulf-weed observed off Cape Race, 111 Fog described, 114 Fog-whistle on voyage, 36, 39 Fogo, harbour with two entrances, 63 ; change of sea-level at, 77" Fogo Island (little), 114 Food of beaver, 137 Food for man and beast in an Indian corn- field, 296 Forest on fire from engine cinders, 46 ; in Labrador, growth of, 91 Forests of maple, oak, etc., in Nova Scotia, 155 ; on White Mountains, 210, 211 Fossils discovered in so-called 'azoic' rocks of Canada, 20; in limestone at St. Louis, 311 ; near Lethe river, 347 Fox (black) great fur prize in Labrador, 72 ; silver-fox, 72 Frame ahead of the engine, woman saved by, 319 Franconia notch, beaches on, 27 Fredericton, New Brunswick, 164, 165 Free black groom in Jamaica, 375, 376 Freezing of sea, 65 French (Norman) accents of Canadian colonists, 242 Fresh water from icebergs, 66 ; marshes, where sea-fish used to be caught, 78 Frontier of Canada and United States, 227 Fundy, Bay of, 9; (rushing of tide, 43, 44 ; freezing of, in winter, 46 ; land at the head of, 154; much sea-fog on 418 INDEX. shores, 171 ; uses of, as a storehouse of heat, 172 Funk Islands once tenanted by great auk, 115 Furrers and their traps in Labrador, 71 Gaelic driver and colonists in Nova Scotia, 156 Gally-nippers or mosquitoes in Newfound- land, 136 Game laws, none in America, 293 Gangrene (hospital), new cure for, 357 Gap, Flint Islands, 47 Garonne in France, a river in N. B. cor- responding to, frozen over for five months, 168 Geese (wild) in air, 317 Geikie (Archibald) on the phenomena of the glacial drift in Scotland, 22 Geological features of rocks at St. John's, 125 Geologist in a blouse, 218, 222 Geology of America, its chief features, 19 German at hotel in New York, 393 Geyer fogel, or great auk, skeletons of, 115 Geyser in Iceland, comparison, 34 Giants' tubs, ice-marks so called, 26 Gilead, terrace at, 198 Girl with mother Carey's chickens, 61 Glacial period, 22 ; work, no trace of, on watershed of Illinois, 291 ; striae not produced by bay-ice, 76 Glacialists, two rival schools of, 21 Glaciated rock foundation of Canada, 238 Glacier, Northern Europe, according to Agassiz, once covered by a great, 22 ; ancient glacier of America, its extent according to Agassiz, 23, 24 ; marks of an ancient one, Placentia Bay, 132 ; spoor of a polar glacier or current, 175 ; local, traces of, on Mount Washington, 214, 216 Glasgow M.P. in 1721-24 dealt in negroes, 375 Glen House among the White Mountains, 208 ; hotel, 211 Goat Island, sketching at, a Spanish sur- geon, etc., 254 ; ice-marks at, 257 Gold, advantage of English, in America, 184, 185 ; in Nova Scotia, 43 ; author supposed to be prospecting for, 45 ; in British Columbia, 303 Gold-digger in Australia, 40 Gold-mines near Halifax, 155 Gordon, Hon. Arthur, on New Brunswick, 170 Gorhani, cultivated drift country, 196 ; and the White Mountains, 205 ; glaciated rocks at, 216 ' Gorillas,' armed bands so called in bor- der states, 339 Gottenburg, low rocks off, ' Thousand Isles ' resemble, 238 Grain as carried into magazines at Chi- cago, 27S Grand Trunk Railway, energies spent in building bridge, 226 Granite blocks, Indian Island, 80; at Monkton, 157 Grass at Lans-a-loup, 10S ; lofty stalks of, 295 Graveyards, country without old, 273 Gravel-beds on White Mountains, 17 ; (water-worn) beds and mounds, 223 Gray horses, Highland legend about, 207 ' Graybacks fought well,' opinion of Fede- ral soldier, 269 Gray-coated men, an avalanche of, at a railway station, 297 Great Eastern at Liverpool, 30 Great Relief, Kentucky, 346 Greedy Harbour, iceberg and ' growlers ' at, 97 ; adventures at, 99 Greenbacks and no gold, 186 1 Green ' cod sent from Labrador to be dried, 90 Green River, Kentucky, 346, 347 Green's Pond, icebergs, 60 ; churchyard at, 60 ; corresponds in latitude to the Scilly Isles, 62 Growth of towns in United States, 276 Guano, skeletons of great auk found in, 115 Gulf-stream outside current near Nova Scotia, 110 ; marks of, 111 ; how it would be affected by depression of America, 11 Gulf-weed, 179 ; observed off Cape Race, 111 Gunboat (iron), one making at St. Louis, 313 Guns, firing of great, at Liverpool, 31 Gymnast at Windsor, 43 Half-breed (Indian) in Canada, 243 Halifax, steamer arrives at, 41 ; tide at, 43 ; resemblance of country to Norway, 43, 163 Hall (C. F.) on swearing of American whalers, 270 Hamilton, sergeant and beds of sand at, 252 Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, 90 ; Hudson's Bay Company's station, 92 Hands (slender) of thoroughbred Indians, 246 Hanging of two men at Paris, Kansas, from newspaper, 325 ' Happy Family ' street menagerie in Lon- don, 377 Harbour Grace, terraced drift, 54 Hare on the road pursued by the driver, 142 ' Harps,' seals so called, 64 Harrison (Cape), Labrador, 91 ; climate at, 94 Haste of Yankees in dining, 267 INDEX. 419 Hatteras Swash, inlets above, filling up, 7 Hawke's Harbour, isthmus of boulders and raised beach, 100 Hawkins (Capt.) and Queen Bess, 370 Hayes River, breaking up of ice on, 168, 169 ' Header ' of cod on Labrador coast, 89 Hebrides, climate of, better than that of Cape Breton, 50, 51 Hematite (brown), a mine of, in Nova Scotia, 155 Henley Harbour, 66 ; raised beach above sea, 106 High Peak : excursion to find ice-marks, 396 Highest spot in a new place, advantage of early visit to, 229 Highland (old) dame in Canada, 244 Highlander met with at Niagara, 256 Highlanders of Cape Breton, 48 ; untidy ways and politeness of, 49 ; (two) swear- ing a match, 270 Hill-tops of Labrador, 72 Hills (old) should be called by old native names, 211 Hitchcock (Prof.), on surface geology, 27 ; of American Continent, 28 Hogarth's ' Gate of Calais' referred to, 242 Hogs carried by rail, 2S0 ; how they kill and cure them at Chicago, 280-283 Holton Harbour, bay getting shoaler, 78, 91 ; bergs seen outside, 93 Holyrood, minerals found at, 143 Horizons linked, mental surveying, 229 Horizontal nature of American scenery, 210 Horse, a dozen ears of Indian corn a good feed for, 296 Horses that would stand anything but engines, 206 Horse-bees, bloodthirsty Newfoundland flies, 136 Horseshoe Falls, Niagara, colour of water, 259 Hospital (Military), in Europe and in America, 356, 357 Hospitality of an American, 184 Hotel, discomforts of a crowded one at Toledo, 271 Hotel lifted at Chicago, 284 Houses constructed by beavers, 139, 140 ; lifting of, at Chicago, 284 ; (white), neat- ness and comfortable look of, about Chicago, 274 Human patients in caves for three or four months, 349 Ice on Labrador coast, 67, 68, 72 ; thick- ness of, at Toulinguet near shore, 113 ; from Prince Edward's Island known by its red colour, 153 ; polishing a stone, 76 ; breaking up on a river in Hudson's Bay, 168, 169 Icebergs carried by ocean-current, 2 ; cause phenomena of drift, 25, 29 ; on voyage out, 36, 37 ; colour at sunset, 38 ; aground in Conception Bay, 54, 55 ; at Toulinguet, 65 ; breaking up of one, 65 ; a small one off Little Belleisle, 66 ; a peaked berg aground, 73 ; resembling Bass, Ailsa-Crag, etc., 75; probable size of, 76 ; acted on slightly by wind, 102 ; curious shapes of, 90 ; observa- tions on the ice of one, 97 ; calculation of dimensions, 98 ; large ones N. of Hawke's Harbour, 100 ; off Straits of Belleisle, action of, 289 Ice-floats, power of, in winter, 239 Ice-house at Rocky Lake, 42, 43 Ice-islands, seen from Henley Harbour, 106 Ice-marks near Halifax and other parts of Nova Scotia, 45 ; St. John's, 53 ; at St. John's, Newfoundland, 126 ; at Frede- ricton, 165 ; at St. John, New Bruns- wick, 174 ; at Eastport, Maine, 179 ; at Portland, 185 ; on Mount "Washington, 214, 215 ; at Goat Island, 257 ; at Black- rock, Buffalo, 260 Ice-quake, a register of one, 239 Ice-raft, danger of, 64 Imports and exports of Newfoundland, 123 Indian corn, 273 ; like a small forest, 295 ; a dozen ears a good feed for a horse, 296 Indian cup, a curious plant (Sarracenia?), 61 Indian Harbour, Labrador, 91 Indian Island, Labrador, observations made on, 79, 80, 99 Indian tea (Ledum), in Labrador, 94 ; at Toulinguet, 112 Indian camps, Nova Scotia, 46 ; on board steamer, vocabulary, 162 ; men and women near Fredericton, 167 ; war in Newfoundland, 150, 151 ; Indian camp at Sydney, 152 ; women in Canada, 246 Indians working for Hudson's Bay Com- pany, 92 Indianapolis, a soldier's conversation about negro soldier, 338 ; bills of fare, 368 ; hotel at, 369 Inn, Newfoundland, 133 ; a roadside inn in Newfoundland, 128 Innkeeper of hotel, Mammoth cave, 352, 354 Instinct or design of beavers in construc- tion of their dams, 138-141 Interior of Newfoundland quite unknown to inhabitants, 150, 151 Irish colonists in Canada, 243 ; colony at Green's Pond, 61 ; driver, modesty of, 33 ; farmer, Newfoundland, 48 ; girls at Quidi Yidi, 147 Irishman, an old one and his family in Newfoundland, 127; and labourer, syn- 420 INDEX. onymous terms in U. S., 187 ; managing betting at Louisville, 360, 361 ; digging drains at Portland, 186 Iron : district, 303 ; does not last long in Labrador, 105 ; factory at St. Louis, 313 Iron-ore boulders, 26, 27 Island of limestone shaped by the ice into the outline of a yacht or a fish, 241 Isothermal line of Cape Breton, 47 Jackson on glacial striae and transport of boulders, 25 ; on water-marks near Mount Washington, 25 Jamaica, free black groom in, 375, 376 ; hole in roof of a free black's hut, 377 James River near Richmond, sea-shells above, 17 Jays in Newfoundland, 140 Jeannette (politics of), 357 Jefferson (Mount), one of White Mountains, 210 Joliet, railway at, 290 Judge (Scotch), with white choker, story of, 267 Juniper, larch so called in Newfound- land, 133 ' Kames,' water-drift in, 193 Kankakee, a slow-going river at Wilming- ton, 291 ' Kearsarge ' one of the crew, 35 Kentucky, feeling about war in, 328 ; mud carried by old arctic current over, 344 ; caves of, 344, 354 Kinsale, old Head of, 33 Kitchen-middens of Labrador, 105 Kingfishers (brown), among White Moun- tains, noise of, 219 King's Cove, iceberg, 56 ; atreasure-seeker, 57 ; raised beach at, 77, 115 Kingston in Canada, 251 Labour in Labrador, how paid for, 108 Labrador, how a depression would affect it, 11 ; ancient sea-level, 15 ; first view of coast, 67 ; inhabitants of, 69 ; chart of, wanted, 70 ; interior of, 71 ; dogs, 59 ; temperature of, 87, 88 ; interior has a milder climate than coast, 92-94 ; meet with two passengers who had been in, 181 La Chine rapids, ancient sea-coast pro- bably near, 235 Lake-steamer in Canada, 245 Lakes, levels of American, 234 ; Superior and Michigan, high terraces on sides of, 18 Lamb, a vain search for, at Buona- Vista, 116 Land-glaciers cause phenomena of drift, 23, 24, 29 Land-ice, course of its travels near Port- land, 189 ; (polar), supposed marks caused bv, 215 Landlady in Newfoundland, 133; a very fat one and her barrel, 142 Landscape in Canada, 247 ; on the Ottawa, 249 Lans-a-loup, fantastic cliffs at, 108, large blocks of granite, etc., 112 Lapps of Scandinavia compared with Lab- rador Esquimaux, 104 Laski (Mr. John de), on glaciated rocks about Penobscot Bay, 25 Laurentian chain of azoic rocks, 19 ; rocks to south of, 20 ; sinking and rising of, influence on current, 28, 29 Lawyer (Scotch) turned Yankee, 304 Lecture on negro character, 273 Lemen in Labrador, 92 Lethe river, Kentucky, 346 ; peculiarities of, 347 Levels of American lakes, 234 Lies, a large crop of big ones grow in the west, 275 Lieutenant of ' Alabama,' 36, 37 Lifting of houses at Chicago, 284 Light thrown on archaeology of Denmark, etc., by Labrador, 106 Lightning at Buona-Vista, 115 Lime, reason of a farmer of Cape Breton for not using, 48 Limestone rock at Ottawa, ice-rubbed, 241 ; singular weathering of, 341, 342 Lincoln, voters for, 391 Liverpool, 30 Lizards of Kentucky caves, 349 Locke's Mills, shingle and sand-beds at, 197 Locomotives, a gathering of, on a wilder- ness of rails, 279 Logan (Sir Wm.) discovers fossils in so- called azoic rocks, 20 Log-hut where Chicago now stands, 276 Londonderry, Nova Scotia, 155 Long Island, Labrador, observations made at, 96 Lome, accent of, heard in Canada, 244 Louisville, guerilla operations near, 327 ; ladies of, 329 ; military hospital, 356 Luggage system of America, its goodness, 190-192 Luna Island, Niagara, boulder at, 256 Lyell (Sir C.) on Niagara Falls as a geological chronometer, 258 MacLellan, a majority for, 269 ; voters for, 391 Madison, steamers made and mended at, 366 Madison (Mount) one of White Mountains, 210 Mail up Labrador coast would pay, 124 Mail-steamer, Newfoundland, 119 Maimed men at Eastport, 180; at Portland, 183 Maine, Atlantic slope of, 188 ; liquor law INDEX. 421 illustrated in a play, 286; liquor, an unfortunate trial of, 177, 178 Mammoth bones found in Kentucky, 344 Mammoth cave, stalactites in, 351 ; hotel in, 352 ; houses in, 351 Manure of fish-guts in Newfoundland, 131, 145 Marine architecture, Quidi Vidi, 147, 14S ; St. John's, 149 Mariners (damp) on board ' Ariel,' and their occupations, 120, 121 Marmot (whistler) in Labrador, 92 Masonry, none in Labrador, 105 M'Donald (Mr.), sees an iceberg with a stone frozen into it, 81 Meals on board Ohio steamer, 365 Mealy Mountains, 95 Meat on board Newfoundland and La- brador steamer, 118, 121 Metamorphic rocks at Portland, 186 Methodist hymns and melodies chaunted by backwoodsmen, 247 Miami river crossed, 387 Mica-schist of White Mountains, 222 Michigan (Lake), scratched stone on beach, 288 Micmac Indians in Nova Scotia, 46 ; em- ployments of, 49 Migration of reindeer, 141 Millinery (French), at Louisville, 329 Minerals found near Holyrood, 143 Mines (Bay of) rise of tide in, 45 Miniature rapids close to Niagara, 253 Minnesota, territory of, 302, wheat of, 303 ; enterprise of, 303, 304 Missionary for Labrador, 58 Missisauges, an old Indian tribe, 250 Mississippi (Valley of), its character, 302 ; mud of river, 305 Missouri, junction with Mississippi, 302 Mitchell, 319, 320 Mongrel breeds in Canada, 245 Monkton, Nova Scotia, 157 Montmorenci Fall, as seen ten miles off, at Quebec, 231 Montreal Mountain, scenery from, 225, 229; blocks on, 226; boulders and glacial stripe on the mountain, 15 Moraines on icebergs, 3 ; of Lombardy and Germany, 22 ; Placentia Bay, 132 Morgan (Mr.), a free black groom in Jamaica, 375, 376 Morgan, as described by different sides, 324 Mosquitos of Labrador, 73 ; so thick that you can't see through them, 74; on board steamer, 100 ; furious at Lans-a- loup, 108; large and vicious ones in Nova Scotia, 157 Mother Carey's chickens at;Green's Pond, 62, 40 Movement and effects of great glacier in North America, 24 Mud around stranded iceberg, 3 ; at Cape Breton, etc. , carried by ice, 290 ; carried by ocean-currents, 343 ; of River Missis- sippi, 305 ; of banks, 309 Murchison (Sir Roderick) discovers fossils in so-called ' azoic' rocks of Scotland, 20 ' Murder of an enrolling officer,' from Ken- tucky paper, 323 ; in Putnam county, Indiana, from newspaper, 324 ; (diaboli- cal) in Henderson county, from news- paper, 331 Murray's Harbour, Labrador, 69, 102 Music and dancing at an inn in Newfound- land, 133 Musician (negro), Mammoth cave, 352 Musquarra, near Anticosti ; route to, 92 Names of mountains, expressiveness of old, 212 Nashville, conversation with a slave of, 335 Native names best for old hills, 211 Natives, ' manners and customs ' of, 245 Navigation, a good place for experimen- tal, 109 Navvy, discourse of one at St. Louis, 314 Negro, what is to be done with him? 382, 386 ; cargo, Captain Hawkins and his, 371 ; character, lecture on, 272, 273 ; girl at Louisville in sky-blue silken swallow-tail, 330 ; life, peculiarities of, 375, 386 ; life at Pittsburg, 372 ; inter- course with negroes, 374 ; melodies (po- pular), 381 ; nurse, stories learned from, 378 ; regiment encamped, 335, 336 ; sol- diers not popular in Kentucky, 326; white soldiers will not fraternise with, 338 ; waiter at Indianapolis Hotel, 369 Negroes prefer slavery to being shot, 332 ; stick together, 375 ; war with South may be carried on for years by the help of, 381 New Brunswick, its resemblance to Scan- dinavia, 171 ; climate, 172 'New England' steamer, 192 Newfoundland, how a depression would affect it, 8, 9 ; lee of, 39 ; dogs, their characteristics, 59; banks getting shoal- er, 77, 110, 111 ; from Henley Harbour, 106 ; steamer too near a cliff in, 109 ; a visit to, worth the trouble of author's trip, 123 ; phaeton and driver, 128 ; local system of glaciers, 132, 146 ; change of climate away from cold sea, 133 ; igno- rance about interior, 150, 151 News about the war at Chicago not to be trusted, 274 New York, election speeches at, 392 ; ho- tel experience at, 393 ; ice-marks at, 397 Niagara Falls, 234 ; nothing new to say about, 252; ice-marks, 255; action of water and ice oifcliffs, 259 ; river older than St. Lawrence, 259 Nick-nacks (embroidered), sold by Indian women, 246 422 INDEX. Nobleman (English) wrote down history of water-bull, 130 Normans take half a day to kill a pig, 280 North theoretically fighting to free others, practically^not, 332, 335, 339 Norway and Newfoundland compared in means of communication, 121 ; in lodg- ing and weather, 122 Nose, speaking through the, 286 ' Notch ' on Mount Washington, 213 ; of Montmorenci fall affords a date to geologist, 231 Nova Scotia, how a depression would affect it, 9 ; likely some day to become an island, 45 ; no fishing in, 42 ; gold in, 43 Oaks (stunted) of New Brunswick, 172 Ocean-current, direction of an ice-laden, 1, 2 ; floating into St. Lawrence groove, 166; currents carry suspended mud, 343 Ohio River, muddy water, 321 ; its bed at Louisville, 362 ; banks, 363, 364 ; depth of water, 363, colour of water, 364 Oil regions near Lake Erie, 266 Ontario terraces of gravel, sand, etc., 232 ; rise of land at head of lake, 233 Open-air living common in America, 355 'Osar,' water-drift packed in, 198 Ottawa, Canada, arctic shells at, 15 ; river frozen at, 240 ; water deeper in spring, 240 ; rapids of, 236 ; landscape on, 249 ; city, 249 ; fine falls at, 250 ; probable growth of, 251 Oyster shells on hills between Madison and Yellow Stone River, 16 Pack Island, observations made at, 96 ' Pan-ice ' mouth of Hamilton inlet, 92 Paper cents and silver coin, an American driver, 184 Paper, wages paid in, 187 Par and char in Newfoundland, 134 Paris (West), deposit of rolled stones at, 197 Parliament House at Ottawa, 250 Partridge-berries, women and girls gather- ing, 127 Partridge Harbour, 95 Passage, ' cheap and nasty,' 53 Passengers on board steamer, 116, 117, 119 ; on board a Yankee steamer, 176 ; in railway trains, 195 Penobscot Bay, glaciated rocks about, 25 Perched blocks on hill-top of Indian Island, 80 ; Indian Island, 99 Perley on New Brunswick, 170 Photographs taken on Mount Washington, 221 Phrenology does not teach where shoe pinches, 186 Physical geography of America, 6-19 Pig in Ireland pays rent, in America is poor man's foe, 309 Pigs and poultry at an inn in Newfound- land, 128 Pig-killing at Chicago, 280, 281 Pilot of wood-raft on Canadian rivers, 248; (Indian Island) cross-questioned by missionary, 91 Pines of New Brunswick, 172 Placentia Bay, ice-marks at, 128 ; terrace on shore, 131 Plains of America, plenty of room, 210; of United States, what traveller by rail sees, 295 Planks made at saw-mill in Canada, 249 Platforms of railway trains, 194 Play at Chicago, 285 ; at Buffalo, and those present at it, 263 ' Plenty of fish in Brig Harbour,' origin of saying, 123 Polar currents, their character and effects should be studied, 13 'Police proceedings,' from newspapers, Oct. 11, 1864, 332 Political economy to be learned from people, 187 Population of Labrador, fixed and transi- tory, 122 Pork and beef, as well as boulders, abound about Buffalo, 267 Porpoises on voyage out, 35 ; a large shoal of, 114 ' Portage,' a mark to geologist, 236 Portland, scenes at, 181-183 ; views from 188 ; ice-marks at, 189 Portmanteau, story of, 191 Port-wine imported into St. John's, 123 ; improved by being carried to New- foundland, 308 Post-bags, delivery of, in Labrador, 75, 76 Pot-holes in granite, observed by Mr. Jackson, 25 Prairie, shooting on, 294 ; farming adven- turers on, 295 ; fertility of, 296 ; above St. Louis, 315, 316 Prairie-hens at Wilmington, 293 ; Carlisle, 316 Prairie-hogs, their end at Chicago, 281 Prescott, rapid at, 236 Primitive condition of Cape Breton, 49 Prince Edward's Island in the distance, 156 Prince of Wales at Wilmington, 292 Processions at Boston, 392 ' Pro-slavery Argument,' a book published at Charleston, 383 Provision trade of Western States, 283, 309 Pumpkins, 273 Purliken (old), 116 Quarry at St. Louis, 310 Quebec, arctic shells on terraces, 15; INDEX. 423 landscape from esplanade, 230 ; rock- pass at, 239 ; the Elsinore of Canada, 235 ; immense stores of timber at, 249 ; frozen up in winter, 308 Quidi Vidi near St. John's, 145 ; fish-stages at, 146, 148 Rabbits on board steamer, 116 Race (Cape), passed without seeing light, 51 Race at Louisville by two negroes, 360, 361 Racoon, a tame one, 164 Rafts (wood) on Canadian rivers, 248 Raid on Lexington railroad, 333 Raiders (American) in Canada, 227 Railroad from Halifax to Truro, 154; Chicago and St. Louis, geological re- marks, 288 Railway cars for women, 195 Railways on flats, advantages of, 308 Rain at Buona "Vista, 115 Rain-water, denudation caused by, since drift period, 3S8 Raised beach or bar at King's Cove, 77 ; Henley Harbour, 106; Placentia Bay, 131 Raised beaches of boulders, Indian Island, 99 ; American Tickle, 100 Ramsay (Prof.), on terraced red cliff in Straits of Belleisle, 396 Rapid at river St. John, 161 'Rapid,' a mark to geologist, 236; effect on vessel, 248 ; wood-raft in one, 249 Raspberries in Newfoundland, 128 Rat seen on voyage, 35 Rats found in Kentucky eaves, 349 Reasons why author visited America, 29, 30 Rebel, 'as soon shoot a reb as a 'coon,' 269 Recruits in America, a specimen, 202; guarded by soldiers, 298, 300 Red Bay, Labrador, observations made at, 107 Reefs off Newfoundland, 115 Refraction (double) with a second fleet of inverted bergs, 103 Reindeer in Newfoundland, 141, 142 Reindeer moss, country covered by, 94 ; absence of, at Toulinguet, 112 Reiper ' partridge' near St. John's, 127 Remains on Kitchen-middens, 105 Rent in Newfoundland not very serious, 127 Retirement (sudden) of sea off St. Shots and St. Mary's Bay, 111 Rhine wood-floats nothing to those on Canadian rivers, 248 Rhododendron, 94, 112 Richardson's Spring in Kentucky, 345 Richmond railway accident, 227 Ridge of mountains and the names of their peaks, 209 Rise of land at head of Lake Ontario, 233 Rising of coast from Cape Race to Cape Harrison, 8 ; of Labrador coast, 77, 78 River, breaking up of ice on a river in Hudson's Bay, 168, 169 River-ice carrying stones, 170; rock at Ottawa rubbed by, 240, 241 Rivers in Canada, 235 River Hall, Kentucky, 346 Rivulets on White Mountains, 214, 216 Road, an abominable one ; 206-207 ; top of Mount Washington, 209; to top of highest peak of White Mountains, 208 ; to Mammoth Cave, 354 Robberies by New York rowdies in train, 195 Roberts (Bay), rock rising out of water, 77 Roches Moutonnees, Indian Island, 79 ; their origin, 80 Rock of trap and limestone, with shells on it, 237 ; scoured bright and smooth by ice, 93 ; steamer bumps on, 151 Rocks among White Mountains placarded with bills, 220, 221 ' Rock in the ground ' — a talking soldier, 200 Rock-pass at Quebec, 239 Rocky Lake ice-house, 42 Room for all the spare population of Europe, 295 Roses (wild) and blue-bells at Toulinquet, 112 Sable Island, part of, washed away since 1828, 7 Saguenay groove, 166 Sail, number of, which pass a Labrador station, 88 Sailors, Celts would never make, 244 Saints' Day, dispensation to fish on, 109 Salmon at Lans-a-loup, 108 ; catch a small one, 134 ; plenty in upper pond, 135 ; Fishery, Labrador, 70 Salmoniere, bridge at, 133 Salt, ships carrying, 95 Salt-lakes of Rocky Mountains, remnants of ancient inland sea, 16 Sand-beds dipping opposite ways, 318 Sandstone, large blocks of, 165 Sandusky, boulders between Chicago and, 394 Sandy beach rare in Labrador, 82 Sausages, a joke about, at Chicago, 283 Saw-mill at Montmorenci the largest in the world, 249 Scandinavia, New Brunswick greatly re- sembles, 171 Scandinavian system of glaciers, 22 School treat near Chicago, 274 Schoolmaster: a sporting Newfoundland one, 135 ; in ' Midshipman Easy,' his ex- perience, 203 Scotch farmer drawn for the war, 29S, 300 ; man and his foe in a street tight, 243 ; woman, a Canadian and a Cuban, 227 424 INDEX. Scratch-hunting about Niagara, 255 ; and shooting combined, 287 Scripture, Southern papers quote, for slavery now, as Captain Hawkins did 300 years ago, 383 Sea, freezing of, 65 ; a grand one off New- foundland, 124 ; a heavy sea and the boats at Quidi Vidi, 147 ; once deep over Canada, 233 ; its probable coast, 235 ; margin (an ancient), on Mount Washing- ton, 214 ; margin (ancient), at Quebec, 231 ; marks of ancient sea-level in Lab- rador, etc., 15; retiring suddenly off St. Shots, 111 Sea-bottoms (old) in N. America, 27 Sea-cow, old skipper on the existence of, 129 Sea-shells found near Boston, 28 ; in drift near Quebec, 232 ; borders of Lake Champlain, 233 ; at Montreal, 233 Sea-ware, why not used by farmers of Cape Breton, 49 Seal islands, delivery of letter-bags, 76 Sealers frozen in off Toulinquet, 113 Seals near Toulinquet, 64 ; pursuit of in March, 122 ; and whale, bones of, found near Montreal, 15 Seal-vats at St. Johns, 149 Sealing vessels lost in the ice off Toulin- guet, 63 Seats in railway trains in U. S., 193 Sentries with fixed bayonets over ' drawn ' men, 298 Sergeant guarding British interests at Ha- milton, 252 Sermon in Labrador, 108, 109 Settler in America learns he is one of the sovereign people, 201 Settlers at Chicago, chiefly Europeans, 285 Shadow to a fair picture, war-draft, 296, 297 Shallowing of the sea off Newfoundland, 7 Shapes (strange) of ice-bergs, 90 Shelbourne, shingle flats, 198 Shells, rarity of, on icy coasts, 62 ; a lesson to geologists of old drift, 63 ; none found in terraces at Gorham, 217 ; (arctic) at Ottawa and Quebec, 15 ; and other parts of N. America, 17 ; arctic, at great elevations in western Europe, 4 ; fresh- water, in bed of gravel at Whirlpool, Niagara, 256 ; among sand, a search for, 186 ; (land and fresh water), in terraced plains at Indianapolis ; (marine), in New Brunswick, proving it was once submerged j identical with Labrador species found near Montreal, etc. , 234 Sherman's advance to Atalanta, kind of country, 355 ; helped out of a mess by his foes, 358, 359 Ship Harbour, observations at, 102 Ships dragged overland by Norse worthies, 304 Shoes, advantage of broad-soled shoes in Newfoundland, 136 Shortest and easiest way of crossing America, 303 Sick man, 124 Side-saddle pit, 345 Sierra (an American), the White Moun- tains, 209, 210 Silurian boulders in Penobscot Bay, 26 Silver coin and paper cents, 184 Silver fox of Labrador a great prize, 72 Sinking of ice, on the probable, 98 Sketch-book, advantage of, to a tourist, 253 Skipper (old Labrador), conversation with, 129 Slave handed over to military authorities, 332-336 Slave-trade rent the Indies from Spain and severed the English plantations, 371 ; state of feeling about, 337, 338 Slavery in America, instances of, 335, 337 Sleeping-car on railroad, 318 Small-pox, root of Indian cup said to be a cure for, 61 Smoothed rocks, 7 ; action of sea-ice, 107 Snipe and woodcock at Wilmington, 293 Snow, depth of, in Labrador, 74 ; amount of water produced by damp and dry snow, 171 ; wreath in Tuckerman's ravine, 215 Snowdon, bed of arctic shells on, 4 ; an- cient sea-beach, 28 Soil of Labrador, 74 Solar system, supposed change in tem- perature of, 29 Soldiers (American), familiarity of officers and men, 199 ; at St. Louis, 313, 314 ; on steamer going down Ohio to Sher- man, 366 Soldiers (Federal), wounded, one met with, 267 Sound, peculiar clanking sound on Ame- rican railways, 227 Soup made of tail of beaver, 141 Source of Mississippi, height of, above sea, 302 Spain and Yankee land, contrasts, 182-184 Spaniard, a surgeon, enthusiastic over operations, 254 Spear (Cape), character of coast about, 52 Spittoons in railway trains, 193 Splitting fish on Labrador coast, 88, 89 Spoor of arctic current, 84 Spooring of icebergs, 5 ; for ice move- ments by rail, 198, 223 Sportsmen (English), watching for water- bull, 129 Spring Hill at Fredericton, 166 Spruce bushes affected by wind, 80 ; in Newfoundland, 128 Squaws (Cape Breton), making baskets, 40 ; (Indian), in Canada, 246 Squirrels, tame, flying and ground, 164 INDEX. 425 Staffordshire, country resembling, 189 Stage, a Yankee one at Gorham, 206-208 ; coach, a curious one in Nova Scotia, 155 ; driver on armed bands, and their effect on staging, 339 Stalactites in Mammoth cave, 351 ; in White's cave, 351 ' Stand by,' what it means in Labrador, 92 Star-chamber in cave in Kentucky, sup- posed sights in, 350 State-room on board Yankee steamer, 176 Steamboats, America might teach Britain lessons about, 192 Steamer to Fredericton, a neat, clean, and fast one, 160 ; a Yankee one, 176-177 ; ' General Huell ' on Ohio, 365 ; from Scotland, arrival of, at St. John's, 150 ; how transported by Minnesotans, 303 Steamers run once a fortnight round North Cape, Norway, 121 ; on Mississippi shot at, 306, 317 Steam-whistle blown, 119, 120 Step (first), on first foreign shore, 182 Steward on board the 'Ariel,' 117, 118 Stewards and stewardesses on board Yankee steamer, 176 St. Francis (Cape), 54 St. Francis Harbour, Labrador, 70 ; rising of coast there, 78 Stick-hunting in woods at Niagara, 258 St. John, New Brunswick, ice-grooves near, 159 ; New Brunswick, 174, 175 ; (river), New Brunswick, 161 St. John's, 52 ; ice-marks, signal-hill, 53 ; land rising, 54 ; church to be built at, means of raising funds, 109; 'the very cream and top-oil ' of, on board ' Ariel,' 121 ; Newfoundland, 124 ; rocks at lighthouse, 125 ; ice at, 126 ; population of, houses of, port, 149 St. Lawrence (Gulf of), rise of tide in, 45 St. Lawrence (river), closed in winter, 171 ; from Montreal Mount looks like a strait, 226; rapids of, 236; landscape on banks of, 247 St. Louis on Mississippi, icebergs followed to, 5, 301 ; hotel at, 304 ; news and sol- diers at, 306 ; chief commerce of, 307 ; situation of, 309 ; iron factory and forti- fications, 313 Stone implements of Indians, 105 Stones brought by icebergs in spring, 107; few at St. Louis, 310 ; (loose), on Mount Washington, angular and natives above 3000 feet, 213 ; lifted by bergs when they turn over, 81 ; on bergs in Straits of Belleisle, 111 ; carried by river-ice, 170 ; dropped by icebergs, 73 ; stones on icebergs, 77, 81 Storm of rain and lightning off Buona Vista, 115 Story of the ' water-cow,' 130 Stoves in railway- trains, 193 Strathspey at Queen's state-ball in 1845, 851 ; in Mammoth Cave, 353 Streams, cold and warm, crossed in the Europa, 150 Streets of Chicago, 277 Strise (glacial) on hills in British islands, their general direction, 4 ; must be made in deep water, 76 ; on rocks at Portland, 185 ; on White Mountains, 222 Striation, partial, of rocks at Ottawa, 241 St. Shots, current causes wrecks at, 110 Submerging of N. America, proofs of an- cient, 14-16 ; of part of New Brunswick, 173 Substitute, a happy one, 297 Subterranean cave, a walk in, 347-351 ' Suggestion,' phenomena of biology, mes- merism, etc. , attributed to, 57 Summer, a very cold one, 150 ; (Labrador), end of, resort of fishermen, 121 Sun's heat, how it affected basalt hill on which a Chilian observatory was placed, 34 Sunrise, a splendid one, 182 Sunset, a magnificent one, 181 ; colours at Carlisle, 317 ; differences between European and American, 317-318 Surface geology, Hitchcock on, 27 Survey of a large country, how to take one in a short time, 229 Suspension bridge, St. John, New Bruns- wick, 174 ; Niagara, boulder at, 225 Susquehanna, large stones in valley, pro- bable source of, 396 Swallow-tail coat at Louisville, 330 Swear, American whalers swear more than English, 270 Swearing, prevalence of, in America, 270 Sydney, Cape Breton, 47, 151 ; boulders on the beach, 152, 153 Tail of beaver makes good soup, 141 Taming of American autocrats, 203 Tarabh Uisge, or water-bull of Celts, 129 'Tarbert' of Scotch sea-lochs, drift re- sembling, 214; Bruce takes ship over one, 304 Telegraph on Norwegian coast, 121 Temiscouata (Lake), 165 Temperature of Kentucky caves, 348; (adapted mean), from 1810 to 1864, 403 ; of water at New York (see table at end) Terapin Tower, Niagara, fallen cliff at, 259 Terraced and glaciated country on St. John River, New Brunswick, 161 ; rock above Catskill village, 395 Terraces along the coast of Chili, 34 ; on Mount Washington, 213; at Gorham, 217 ; round St. Lawrence basin, 235 Thomson's Fall, White Mountains, 216 ' Thousand Isles ' of Lake Ontario, 238 ' Ticket-of-leave man,' a play at Chicago, 426 INDEX. Tide of Windsor, Bay of Fundy, 43 ; ris- ing of, described, 44 j the highest in the world, 156 Tides in Straits of Belleisle, 110 Timber, wasteful burning of, in N. Brims- wick, 173 ; floats on Canadian rivers, 248 Time (geological) measured by Niagara falls, 258 ' Times ' correspondent arrested at Wil- mington, 292 Tin church spires in Canada, 247 Tobacco raised in price in U. S., 189 Toledo, hotels full at, 271 Topsail, Newfoundland, farms at, 128 'Topsy,' a charming one in play at Chicago, 2S6 Tor end of PJacentia Bay, 132 Toronto, old Indian town, 250; the modern one, 251 Toulinguet, sealing vessels lost off, 63 ; church built on raised beach, 78 ; land- scape seen from hill at, 112 ; sealers frozen in, 113 Tourist to White Mountains, 208, 209; (American), description of, 221 ; met on Goat Island, 255 Town-life in Canada, 247 Track through Newfoundland forest, 136 Train, a Yankee, 192-194 ; breaking down on Grand Trunk, disadvantages of, 226 Trap to take beavers in, 141 Traveller and his luggage in America, 190, 191 Travelling in Labrador, 71 Treasure-seeker and his divining-rod, 56, 57 ; treasure found, 58 Trees in the interior of Labrador, 71, 74 ; growing thickly in Newfoundland, 133 ; in streets of Portland, 1S6 , on Mount Washington, 212 ; at Buffalo mark pre- vailing direction of wind, 266. Trowel used in building Skerryvore lighthouse, 105 Tuckerman's Ravine, White Mountains, 215 Turnips and potatoes grow at bottom of Sandwich Bay, 87 Twillinget (see Toulinguet) ' Ugly' lot of drawn men, 298 Umbral or carboniferous limestone at St. Louis, 311 * Uncle Tom ' acted at Chicago, 285 United States, first planting of author's foot on soil of, 179 'Valley'— of old world traveller and American very different, 225 Vegetation at Toulinguet, 64 ; Labrador, 74 ; about Henley Harbour, Labrador, 106 ; of Newfoundland, 133 Venison Tickle, Labrador, 75, 101 Venison, every scrap of, carried away in Newfoundland, 142 Ventilation of Kentucky caves, 348 Vespertine or carboniferous limestone at St. Louis, 311 Vessels crushed and wrecked amongst ice, 113 View of Labrador from top of Indian Island, 80 Vigo, author's landing at, compared with landing at Portland, 182 Vocabulary from an Indian on board steamer, 102, 163 Vote for Lincoln or M'Lellan? 268 Wages paid in paper, 187 'Wanderer,' cudgel for, from Niagara woods, 253 Wandering animals, men are ! 388 Wanton killing of deer reprobated in New- foundland, 142 War in America, change of bearing in those engaged in it, 200, 204 ; draft, a dark shadow, 296, 297 ; end of Yankee, 359; news, 321, 322; prices, 185; found by Irishmen to be unpleasant, 186 : traces of at Eastport, 180 ; at Portland, 183 ; traces of, 333 ; what is the cause of the? 329; cause deeper and darker than ever, 335 ; Yankee asks author for his opinion about the war and gets it, 340 Warren (Mr.), a lecturer on Labrador, 87 ; extracts from journal, 88 Washington (George), his name need not be given to a mountain, 212 Washington (Mount), its height, 6 ; drift and striae on, 17 ; water-marks on, 25 ; visible from hill near Portland, 188 ; road to summit of, 209; why so called, 209; 1 zones as you ascend, 212, 213 Water on board 'Ariel,' 121 ; at St. Louis hotel, very muddy, 305 ; (action of), evi- dences, 198 Water-bull, Celtic population of British Islands believe in the existence of, 129 ; and in Iceland, 130 Water-line at Ottawa, 240 Water-lily (yellow), in Newfoundland, 133 : root eaten by beavers, 138, 140 Water-marks near Mount Washington, Jackson, on, 25 Watershed, Nova Scotia, 155; of St. Law- rence and Mississippi, 288 ; of Ohio and St. Lawrence, boulders on, 394 Water-work, country between Toledo and Chicago, 272 ; near Goat Island, 258 Water-worn limestone, Chicago and St. Louis railroad, 289 Weasels in Newfoundland wise and vicious, 144 Weather off Newfoundland, 114; (English), in June, July, August, September, Oc- tober, and November, 399, 401 INDEX. 427 Weathering of rock-surfaces between Louisville and Cave City, 341 Whale, bones of, found near Montreal and in Vermont, 15 ; found in beds 60 feet above Lake Champlain, 234 Whales spouting, 40 Wharf of pine logs destroyed by bay-ice, 153 Wheels in railway carriages, 193 Whelks at Green's Pond, 61 Whirlwind, a constant one, behind Nia- gara Falls, 258 Whirlpool, Niagara, shells found in bed of gravel, 256 White Mountains of North America, high- est point, 6 ; gravel beds and other marks of sea on, 17 ; peaks named after American celebrities, 209; geological results of author's visit to, 222 ; much resorted to by tourists, 205 ; sea once in the glens, 198 ; road to, 205, 208 White River, country about, 318 White's Cave, and its limestone forma- tions, 351 Whitewash bill-sticking among White Mountains, 220 Wild geese, two on board, 1 hi Wigwams of Micmac Indians, 46 Wilmington, ' rolling' of prairie, 290 ; river at, 291 ; a fashionable resort, 292 ; hotel keeper at, a great shot, 293 Wind (prevailing) indicated by growth of spruce, 80 ; acts slightly on icebergs, 102 ; at Buffalo, prevailing direction marked by trees, 266 Windsor, Nova Scotia, 42 ; plain of mud when tide is out, 43 Winnepeg (Lake), steamer on, 304 Woman on rail saved by frame ahead of the engine, 319 Women, railway cars for, 195 Woodcock at Wilmington, 293 Wooden buildings in Labrador, 105 ; house at Toulinguet on rock in sea, 113 Wood-rafts on Canadian rivers, 248 Wright (Dr. Charles), guide book to Ken- tucky, 344 Yankee steamer, the author's first, 176, 177 ; portrayed by Mrs. Trollope, and Dickens altered, 204 Zigzag fences, 273 THE END. Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CD3fiM3bE^S