THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE CAMPING-OUT SERIES. VOLUME n. LEFT ON LABRADOR; CRUISE OF THE SCHOONER-YACHT "CURLEW." AS RECORDED BY "WASH. BY C. A. STEPHENS. ILLUSTRATED. PHILADELPHIA : PORTER AND C GATES. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. INTRODUCTION. rTlHOSE of our readers who may have read * " Camping Out," the first volume of the " Camping-Out Series," will probably recall the circumstance of the graphite lode, and the man- ner in which it was left to Raed to dispose of. As the season was too far advanced at the time of his negotiations with the unknown gentlemen to permit of a trip to Katahdin that fall, the whole affair wab postponed till the following spring. On the 27th of April, Raed set out for Bangor. At Portland, Me., he was joined by the gentlemen (their names we are not at liberty to give) ; and at Bangor Kit met the party. Thence they went up to the mountain, where they had no difficulty in rediscovering the lode. That the examination was satisfactory will be seen from the first chapter iii 484036 i v INTRODUCTION. of young Burleigh's narrative, which we subj. -.'** It is an account of their first yacht-cruise no~th. The schooner " Curlew," with the party, sailed from " Squam " (Gloucester, north village) on the 10th of June. On the 7th of July they made Cape Resolution on the north side of the entrance of Hudson Straits. Thenceforward, till their escape from that icy passage in August, their voyage was one continued series of startling adventures amid some of the grandest and most terrible scenery the earth affords. Of the plan of self-education adopted and acted upon by these young gentlemen we may remark, that it is singularly bold and original in its concep- tion. If persevered in. we have no doubt that the result will fully justify their expectations. Unless we are much mistaken, it will be, as they modestly hope, a pioneer movement, looking to a much- needed revolution in the present sedentary pro- gramme of collegiate study. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAOK Sequel to the " Graphite Lode." The Fifteen Thousand Dollars, and how it was invested. About the Yacht. The Schooner " Curlew." Capt. Mazard. Guard. The Gloucester Boys. " Palmleaf, Bar." Getting Ready for the Voyage. Ship-Stores. The How- itzer. The Big Rifle. A Good Round Bill at the Outoet . . > CHAPTER IL Dp Anchor, and away. What the Old Folks thought of It. Th Narrator's Preface. " Squeamish." A North-easter. Foggy. The Schooner " Catfish." Catching Cod-Fish on the Grand Bank. The First Ice. The Polar Current. The Lengthening Day. Cape Farewell. We bear away for Cape Resolution. Hudson's fi*jraits. Its Ice and Tides 17, CHAPTER m. Oape Resolution. The Entrance into Hudson's Straita. The Sun in the North-east. The Resolution Cliffs. Sweating among Icebergs. A Shower and a Fog. An Anxious Night. A Strange Rum- bling. Singular Noises and Explosions. Running into an Iceberg. In Tow. A Big Hailstone drops on Deck. Boarding n Ice- berg. Solution of the Explosions. A Lucky Escape ... 99 . T Yi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGI. The Fog lifts. A Whale in Sight. Craggy Black Mountains capped with Snow. A Novel Carriage for the Big Rifle. Mounting the Howitzer. A Doubtful Shot. The Lower Savage Isles. A Deep Inlet. "Mazard's Bay." A Desolate Island. An Ice- Jam. A Strange Blood-red Light. Solution of the Mystery. Going Ashore. Barren Ledges. Beds of Moss. A Bald Peak. An Alarm. The Schooner in Jeopardy. The Crash and Thun- der of the Ice. Tremendous Tides ....... Si CHAPTER V. A Dead Narwhal. Snowy Owls. Two Bears in Sight. Firing on them with the Howitzer. A Bear-Hunt among the Ice. An Ice " Jungle." An Exciting Chase. The Bear turns. Palmleaf makes "a Sure Shot." "Run, you Black Son 1" . 13 CHAPTER VI. The Middle Savage Isles. Glimpse of an Esquimau Canoe. Firing at a Bear with the Cannon-Rifle. A Strange Sound. The Esqui- maux. Their Kayaks. They come on Board. An Unintelligible Tongue. " Chymo " .......... -84 CHAPTER Vn. The Husky Belles. We-we and Caubvick. "Abb," she said. All Promenade. Candy at a Discount. "Pillitay, Pillitay!" Old Trull and the Husky Matron. Gorgeous Gifts. Adieu to the Arctic Beauties . .... ....*.. 101 CHAPTER Vni. The Husky Chief. Palmleaf Indignant. A Gun. Sudden Appari- tion of the Company's Ship. We hold a Hasty Council. In the Jaws of the British Lion. An Armed Boat. Repel BoardersI Red-face waxes wrathful. Fired on, but no Bones broken . . 114 CHAPTER IX. A Barren Shore, and a Strange Animal, which is captured by blowing up its Den. Palmleaf falls in with the Esquimaux, and is chased by them. " Tu>au-ve .'" U A Close Shave." An Attack threat- ened. The Savages dispersed with the Howitzer . . . .131 CONTENTS. v ,i CHAPTER X. PAOB. The Dip of the Needle. The North Magnetic Fole. A Kayak Bot- tom up, with its Owner Head down. Ice-Patches. Anchoring to an Ice-Floe. A Bear-Hunt in the Fog Bruin charges his Enemies. Soundings. The Depth of the Straits . . . .16? CHAPTER XI. " Isle Aktok." A Sea-Horse and a Sea-Horse Hunt. In High Spirits. Sudden Interruption of the Hunt. A Heavy Gun. The Race to the Ledge-Tops. Too Late. A Disheartening Spectacle. Surprised by the Company's Ship. The Schooner in Peril. Capt. Hazard hravely waits. The Flight of "The Curlew" amid a Shower of Balls. The Chase. Left on the Islet. A Gloomy Prospect. " What shall we have for Grub to ate 1" Wild-Geese. Egging. "Boom!" A Sea-Horse Fire 168 CHAPTER XH. The "Spider." Fried Egga. The "Plates." " Awful Freshl" No Salt. Plans forgetting Salt from Sea -Water. Ice -Water. Fried Goose. Plans to escape. A Gloomy Night. Fight with a Walrus. Another " Wood -Pile." Wade Sick. A Peevish Pa- tient and a Fractious Doctor. The Manufacture of Salt . . 187 CHAPTER XIII. More Salt. Some Big Hailstones. A Bright Aurora. The Look out. An Oomiak heaves in Sight. The Huskies land on a Neigh boring Island. Shall we join them? A Bold, Singular, not to say Infamous, Proposition from Kit. Some Sharp Talk. Kit's Pro- ject carried by Vote 207 CHAPTER XIV. We set up a Military Despotism on " Isle Aktok." " No Better than Filibusters I " The Seizure of the Oomiak. The Seal-Tax. A Case of Discipline. Wulchee and Wundice. The Inside of a Husky Hut. " Eigh. Eisrhl" An Esquimau Ball. A Funeral. Wutchee and Wu-'oVc's Coour own suggestion. It would have been better to have taken the advice of some expe- rienced shipmaster : it might have cost us less, and we should afterwards have fared better, to have done so. I remember that we took along a lot of confection eries, both for our own delectation and also to "treat" the Esquimaux on ! That was a wild shot. As well offer an Esquimau cold boiled parsnip as a stick of candy. We also had two boxes of lemons ! Which of us was responsible for the proposition for lemonade in Hudson Straits has never been satisfactorily settled. We none of us can remember how the lemons came on board. Wade says they were bought as an antidote for sea-sick- ness. A far more sensible article of traffic was twenty dollars' worth of iron in small bars ; four dozen large jack-knives ; twenty butcher-knives, and the same num- ber of hatchets. We had also a web of red flannel at twenty dollars ; in all, ninety dollars. For mattresses, blankets, "comforters," and buffalo- skins, there was expended the sum of a hundred and twenty-three dollars. Ten Springfield rifles at ten dol- lars each (bought at an auction-sale), with a quantity of cartridges, one hundred and twelve dollars. For an old six-po.md howitzer, purchased by Capt. Mazard from a schooner suppose 1 to have been engaged in the slave- !(} LEFT ON LABRADOR. trade, nineteen dollars ; and for ammunition (powder, iron shot, and a lot of small bullets), thirty-seven dol- lars. For firing at seals or bears from the deck of the schooner, we had made, at Messrs. R. & Co.'s machine- shop, a large rifle of about an inch bore, and set like a miniature cannon in a wrought-iron frame, arranged with a swivel for turning it, and a screw for elevating or de- pressing the muzzle. This novel weapon was, as I must needs own, one of my projection, and was always a subject for raillery from my comrades. Its cost, including the mounting, was ninety-seven dollars. In all, three hundred and eighty-eight dollars. Then they were other bills, including the cost of sev- eral nautical telescopes, also ice-anchors, ice-chisels, sounding-line, hawsers, &c., to the sum of a hundred and three dollars. The lumber and carpenter work on " The Curlew " at Portland made a bill of a hundred and nine dollars ; seamen's wages to Gloucester, with car-fare back, nine- teen dollars; bracing and strengthening the schooner, sixty-seven dollars ; cost of getting in fuel and water, thirty-three dollars ; and other bills to the amount of forty-nine dollars : in all, two hundred and seventy-seveif dollars. We had thus to pay out at the start over eleven hundred dollars. Capt. Mazard, too, was kept as busy as ourselves superintending the work, putting the vessel in ballast, &c. Indeed, it's no small job to get ready foi such a cruise. We had no idea of it when we began. CHAPTER II. Up Anchor, and away. What the Old Folks thought of it. The Nar- rator's Preface. " Squeamish." A North-easter. Foggy. Th Schooner "Catfish." Catching Cod- Fish on the Grand Bank. The First Ice. The Polar Current. The Lengthening Day. Cape Fare- well. We bear away for Cape Resolution. Hudson's Straits. Its Ice and Tides. [In Wash's manuscript, the voyage as far as Cape Resolution occupies four chapters. We have been obliged .to condense it into one, as indicated by periods. ED.] ON the afternoon of the 9th of June, Capt. Hazard telegraphed, " Can sail to-morrow morning if the winds serves." We had heen ready several days, waiting for the last joh, strengthening the schooner. Good-by was said ; and, going out to Gloucester, we went on board to pass the night. As some of our readers may perhaps feel inclined to ask what our " folks " said to this somewhat adventurous departure, it may as well be stated that we were obliged to go considerably in opposition to their wishes, advice, counsel ; in short, every thing that could be said save a downright veto. It was unavoidable on our part. They could not be brought to look upon our (or rather Raed's) project of self-education as we did they saw only tho 2 17 18 LEFT ON LABRADOR. danger of the sea. Had we done as they advised, we should have staid at home. I shall not take it upon me to say what we ought to have done. As a matter of fact, we went, or this narrative would never have been writ- ten. Nor can I say conscientiously, by way of mor- al, that we were ever, for any great length of time, sorry that we went : on the contrary, I now believe it far the best way we could have spent our money ; though the experience was a rough one. It may also be added, that we did not publicly state our intention of going so far north as Labrador ; one reason for this being, that we were in no wise certain we should go farther than St. John's, Newfoundland. Our " saloon " was arranged with a sort of divan, or wide seat, along the starboard-side, at about chair-height. On this we laid our mattresses and blankets. Each had his bunk, this divan serving in the place of berths. The captain had his toward the forward end of the apartment. Guard bunked directly under him on an old jacket and pants. Along the port-side there was made fast a strong broad shelf, at table-height, running the entire length : this was for our books and instruments. The captain had the forward end of it, the part fronting his bunk, for his charts and papers. Before this table there was a long bench, fixed conveniently for sitting to read or write. This bench, together with three strong bar- room-chairs and four camp-stools, made up our sitting- accommodations. From pegs over the divan and table there "hung a miscellaneous collection of powder-horns, rifles, fishing-tackle, tarpauling-hats, rubber coats, and " sou'-westers ; " nor had I failed to bring along the old LEFT ON LABRADOR. 19 Sharpe'u rifle which had done such good service among the moose-stags of Katahdin. . . . We had brought "Pahnleaf" with us, and now installed him in the galley. As a specimen of his art, we had him make muffins and tea that evening. Very fair they were, with butter and canned peaches. The men came down during the evening, having been previously notified, and were assigned to their berths. We boys turned in at about eleven, and were only aroused next morning by the rattle of blocks, clank of the windlass, and trampling of feet^ on deck. "We're off!" exclaimed Raed, starting up. "Turn out, and say farewell to ' our native countree.' " We stumbled up on deck ; for it was still quite dark : only a pale-bright belt along the ocean to the eastward showed the far-off coming of the day. The shore and the village looked black as night. We were already several hundred yards from the wharf. A smart, cold breeze gushed out of the north-west. The huge, dim- white sails were filling : " The Curlew " gathered way, and stood out to sea. The chilling breeze, the motion, the ink-black waves, and their sharp cracking on the beach, were altogether a little disheartening at first, coming so suddenly from sleep. We felt not a little inclined to shrink back to our warm blankets ; but, mastering this feeling, braced our courage, and drew breath for our long cruise. The captain came aft. " Ah ! good-morning ! " he cried, seeing us hud- died about the companion-way. "I meant to get off without waking you. We made too much noise, I suppose. Smart breeze this. Make ten knots on it, 20 LEFT ON LABRADOR. easy. Could put you to the north pole in fifteen days with such a capful, if there were no ice in the way," he added. " We might soon be at Hudson Straits were this to hold," laughed Kit. " Yes, sir," replied the captain. " Eight days would do it. But of course this is mere fine talk. You are not to look for any thing of the sort." " We don't," said Kaed. " But how long do you sup- pose it will take to work up there with ordinary weather ? " "Oh! well, for a guess, eighteen days, anywhere from eighteen to twenty-five. Oughtn't to be over twenty-five with this schooner. Will sail thirteen knots on a wind." . . . We were now fairly clear of the shore. The wind freshened. "The Curlew" dashed forward, rising and falling with the swells. The whole east was reddening. The dark spar of the bowsprit rose and fell through it. It seemed a good omen to be going toward the light. Ere the sun met us on the sea, we were twelve miles out of Gloucester. . . . Kit had often complained that he had been unable to write up the account of our Katahdin expedition so well as he could have done had he known beforehand that it would have fallen to him to do. At his suggestion, Kaed, Wade, and myself, this morning, drew lots to see who would be the historian of the present cruise. The reader, doubtless, has already inferred which of us got the short lot. Well, it was fun for the others, though any thing but fun for me. Nothing but a strong sense of LEFT OX LABRADOR. 1>1 restraining shame, added to the rather inconvenient dis- tance from land, prevented me from deserting. Nature never designed me for a writer. Of that I am convinced ; and doubtless my readers will not long differ with me. This is my first literary effort. If I know myself, it will also be my last. Under these circumstances, I beg that such of my young fellow-citizens as may happen to come upon this narrative (and I am not ambitious to have the number large) will kindly forbear to criticise it ; for it will not bear criticism. Such of the facts and incidents of our voyage as I have thought would be of interest I have tried to write out. Strictly nautical terms and phrases I have sought to avoid : first, because I believed them of no great interest to the general reader ; second, because, with this my first sea- trip, I have not become adept enough in their use to "swing" them with the fluent grace of your true-going, irresistible old salt ; and from any other source they are, to my mind, unendurable. In the plan of education we have marked out for our- selves, it has not been our intention to become sailors. We would merely use the sea and its ships as a means of conveyance in our scheme of travel. . . . Breakfast at six o'clock ; two messes, one of the crew, the other comprising our party and the captain. The men had boiled potatoes, fried pork, corn-bread, and biscuit. At our table we had roast potatoes and butter with corn-bread, then biscuit and butter with canned tomatoes. After breakfast, we went on deck a while ; but the motion was far too great for comfort. The breeze held. Tl e coast of Massachusetts was low in the west. To the north, the mountains of Maine showed blue on the 22 LEFT ON LABRADOR. horizon. We went below to read. Kead had bought, borrowed, and secured every work he could hear of on northern voyages and exploration, particularly those into Hudson Bay. It was our intention to thoroughly lead up the subject during our voyage ; in a word, to get as good an idea of the northern coast as possible from books, and confirm this idea from actual observation. This was the substance of B-aed's plan of study. . . . By eleven o'clock we had grown a little sea-sick, just the slightest feeling of nausea. Kit shuts his book, rests his arm on the table, and leans his head on it. " You sick ? " demands Raed. " Oh, no ! not much ; just a little squeamish." Presently Wade lies down on his mattress, and I im- mediately ask, " Much sick, Wade ? " To which he promptly replies, " Oh, no ! squeamish a little ; that's all." By and by the skipper looks down to inquire, " Sick here, anybody ? " To which we all answer at once, " Oh, no ! only a bit squeamish." Squeamish was the word for it till near night, when we seemed suddenly to rally from it, though the motion continued the same ; but the wind had veered to the south, and almost wholly lulled. We slept pretty well that night ; but the next forenoon the nausea returned, and stuck by us all day. Every one who has been to sea knows how such a day passes. We had expected it, lowever, and bore it as lightly as possible. . . . On the third morning out we found it raining, with the wind north-east. The schooner was kept aa near it as possible, making about three knots an hour, LEFT ON LABRADOR. 23 The wind increased during the forenoon. By eleven o'clock there was a smart gale on. The rain drove fiercely. We grew sick enough. " This is worse than the ' poison spring ' at Kata!i- din ! " groaned Kit. The skipper came down. " Is it a big gale ? " Raed managed to ask. " Just an ordinary north-easter." "Well, then, I never wish to meet an extraordinary one ! " gasped Wade. The captain mixed us some brandy and water from his own private supply, which we took (as a medicine). But it wouldn't stay down : nothing would stay down. Our stomachs refused to bear the weight of any thing Night came on : a wretched night it was for us. " The Curlew " floundered on. The view on deck was doubt- less grand j but we had neither the legs nor the dispo- sition to get up. . . . Some time about midnight, a dozen of our six-pound shots, which had been sewed up in a coarse sack and thrown under the table-shelf, by their continued motion worked a gap in the stitches ; and three or four of them rolled out, and began a series of races from one end of the cabin to the other, smashing reck- lessly into the rick of chairs and camp-stools stowed in the forward end. Yet I do not believe one of us would have got up to secure those shot, even if we had known they would go through the side : I am pretty certain 1 should not. They went back and forth at will, till the captain, hearing the noise, came down, and after a great fcmount of dodging and grabbing, which might have been amuping at any other time, succeeded in capturing 24 LEFT ON LABRADOR. the truants and locking them up. The next day it was no better: wind and rain continued. We were not quite so sick, but even less disposed to get up, talk, or do any thing, save to lie flat on our backs. We heard the sailors laughing at and abusing Palmleaf, who was dreadfully sick, and couldn't cook for them. Yet we felt not the least spark of sympathy for him : I do not think we should have interfered had they thrown him overboard. Wade called the poor wretch in, and ordered him, so sick he could scarcely stand, to make a bowl ot gruel ; and, when he undertook to explain how bad he felt, we all reviled him, and bade him go about his busi- ness. " Nothin' like dis on de oyster schoonah," we heard him muttering as he staggered out. . . . The storm had blown us off our course to the south-east considerably ; and the next morning we tacked to the northward, and continued due north all that day and the next. It may have been fancy ; but we all dated our recovery from this change of course. It had stopped raining, and the wind gradually went down. Now that the nausea had passed off we were hungry as wolves, and kept Palmleaf, who was 7iow quite recov- ered, busy cooking all day long. . . . The weather con- tinued cloudy. The view from the damp deck was dull to the last degree. Capt. Hazard was in considerable doubt as to our latitude. Not a glimpse of the sun had he been able to catch for five days; and during this time we had been sailing sometimes very fast, then scarcely making way in the teeth of the strong north-easter. To the north and north-east the fog banks hung low on tha LEFT ON LABRADOR. 25 aea. So light was the wind, that the sails scarcely filled The schooner seemed merely to drift. . . . Toward night we entered among the fog-hanks. The whole face of the sea steamed like a boiling kettle. The mist rose thin and gauze-like. We could scarcely see the length of the deck. It was blind work sailing in such obscurity, possibly dangerous. * " Have you any idea where we are, captain ? " Kaed asked. We stood peering ahead" from the bow. " Somewhere off Newfoundland. On the Grand Bank, I think. Fog indicates that. Always foggy here this time o' year." " It is here that the gulf stream meets the cold cur- rents and ice from Baffin's Bay," said Kit. " The warm current meeting the cold one causes the fog : so they say." "I have seen the statement," remarked Raed, "that these great banks are all raised from the ocean-bottom by the debris brought along by the gulf stream and the current from Davis Straits." " But I have read that they are raised by the melting of icebergs," said Wade. " The iceberg has lots of sand and stones frozen into it : when it melts, this matter sinks ; and, in the course of ages, the ' banks ' here have been formed." " Perhaps both causes have had a hand in it," said Kit. " That looks most probable," remarked Capt. Hazard. "These scientific men are very apt to differ on such subjects. One will observe phenomena, and ascribe it wholly to one cause, when perhaps a half-dozen causes 26 LEFT ON LABRADOR. have been at d out, seemingly not a hundred yards ahead. "Port your helm there!" shouted the skipper to Bonney, who was at the wheel. The old sea-dog, Trull, caught up a tin bucket setting near, and began drum- ming furiously ; while the skipper, diving down the com- panion-way, brought up a loaded musket, which he hastily discharged over his head. " Shout, halloo, scream ! " he sang out to us. "Make all the noise you can, to let them know where we are!" The schooner sheered off, minding her helm ; and, at the same moment, we saw the dim outline of a sn:all \ressel almost under the bows. " What ship is that ? " demanded Capt. Mazard. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 27 " Schooner ' Catfish ' of Gloucester," replied a boyish voice. " Where bound ? " " Home." " Can you give us the latitude ? " " Can't do it, skippy. Haven't seen the sun for a week. Not far from forty-five degrees, I reckon." " Are we in any danger of Cape E-ace ? " " Not a bit. We're more than a hundred miles east of it, 1 think." The little schooner, of not more than sixty tons, drifted slowly past. There were seven hands on deck ; all boys of sixteen and eighteen, save one. This is the training which makes the Gloucester sailors so prized for our navy. . . . During the evening, we heard at a distance the deep, grum whistle of the Inman steamer going down to Halifax, whistling at intervals to warn the fisher- men. It continued foggy all night, but looked thinner by nine next morning. The captain brought up an armful of out-riggers (a short spar three or four feet long to set in the side-rail, with a small pulley-block in the upper end to run a line through). " Now, boys," said he, setting the out-riggers. " we will try the cod. Palmleaf! Palmleaf! Here, you sunburnt son ! A big chunk of pork ! " " They won't bite it," said old Trull. "I've sometimes caught 'em with it," replied the captain. "I>'s pork or nothing. We've no clams nor mauhaden (a small fish of the shad family) to lure them" 28 LEFT ON LABRADOR. The stout/ cod-hooks, with their strong lineii lines, were reeved through the blocks, baited, and let down into the green water. For some time we fished in silence. No bites. We kept patiently fishing for fifteen minutes. It began to look as if old Trull was right. Presently Kit jerked hastily. " Got one ? " we all demanded. " Got something ; heavy too." " Haul him up ! " cried the skipper. Kit hauled. It made the block creak and the out- rigger bend. Yard after yard of the wet line was pulled in; and by and by the head of a tremendous fellow parted the water, and came up, one, two, three feet, writhing and bobbing about. " Twenty pounds, if an ounce ! " shouted young Dono- van. " Heave away ! " cried the captain. " Now swing him over the rail ! " They were swinging him in, had almost got their hands on him, when the big fish gave a sudden squirm. The hook, which was but slightly caught in the side of its mouth, tore out. Down he went, chud ! Such a yell of despair as arose ! such mutual abuse as broke out all round ! till, just at that moment, Wade cried, "I have one!" when all attention was turned to him./ Slowly he draws it up. We were all watching. But 'twas a smaller one. "About a seven-pounder," pronounces the captain, eafely landing him on deck, where he was unhooked, and left to wriggle and jump out his agonies. A minute later, Raed had out a "ten-pounder;" and, LEFT ON LABRADOR. 29 having once begun to bite, tbey kept at it, until the deck grew lively with their frantic leaping. " Got all we want ! " cried the skipper after abou t an hour of this sort of thing. " There's a good two hundred weight of them. Here, Palmleaf, pick 'em up, dress 'em, and put 'em in pickle : save what we want for din- ner. Now, you Donovan and Hobbs, bear a hand with those buckets. Rinse off the bulwarks, and wash up the deck." " This is the kind of sport they have on a cod-fisher every day, I suppose," said Raed. "Yes; but it gets mighty stale when you have to follow it for a month," replied Donovan. "I know what cod-fishing is." . . . Toward noon the sun began to show its broad disk, dimly outlined in the white mists. The captain ran for his sextant ; and an observation was caught, which, being worked up, gave our latitude at 45 35'. We had probably made in the neighborhood of thirty miles during the night : so that the boys on " The Cat- fish" had given a very shrewd guess, to say the least. In the afternoon we had a fair breeze from the south-east. All giil was made, and we bowled along at a grand rate. Early the next morning we saw the first ice, three or four low, irregular masses, showing white on the sea, and bearing down toward us from the north-west with the polar current. This current, coming along the coast of Labrador, is always laden with ice at this season. To avoid it, we now bore away to the north-east, keeping for several days on a direct course for Iceland ; then gradually describing the arc of a circle came round 30 LEFT ON LABRADOR. west into the latitude of Cape Farewell, the southern point of Greenland. . . . Each day, as we got farther north, the sun set later, and rose earlier ; till, on the 28th of June, its bright red disk was scarcely twenty minutes below the northern horizon. . . . On the 3d of July we discerned Cape Farewell, a mountainous headland, crowned with snow, at a distance of fifteen or twenty leagues. From this point, Cape Resolution, on the north side of the entrance into Hudson Straits, bears west ten de- grees north, and is distant not far from seven hundred miles. The wind serving, we bore away for it. . . . During June and July, Hudson Straits are full of ice driving out into the Atlantic. This ice forms in the winter in vast quantities in the myriads of inlets and bays on both sides of the straits. The spring breaks it up, and the high tides beat it in pieces. It is rare that a vessel can enter the straits during June for the outcoming ice; but by July it has become suf- ficiently broken up and dispersed to allow of an en- trance by keeping close up to the northern side, which has always been found to be freest from ice in July and August ; while, on coming out in September, it is best to hug the southern main (land) as closely as possible. On our voyage up we had taken great pains to read and compare every account we could find regarding both the ice and the general character of the straits. Our plan was to make Cape Resolution, wait for a fair wind, and slip into the straits early in the day, so as to get as fai up as possible ere night came on. A person who has LEFT ON LABRADOR. 31 never been there can form no idea of the tremendous force with which the tide sets into the st-rato, tb^ velo- city of the currents, and the amazing smash among the ice. . . . CHAPTER IIL Cape Resolution. The Entrance into Hudson's Straits. The Sun li the North-east. The Resolution Cliffs. Sweating among Icebergs. A Shower and a Fog. An Anxious Night. A Strange Rumbling. Singular Noises and Explosions. Running into an Iceberg. In Tow. A Big Hailstone drops on Deck. Boarding an Iceberg. Solution of the Explosions. A Lucky Escape. " ~T~ AND and ice, land and ice, ho ! " sang out our I J old sea-dog from his lookout in the bow. 'Twas the morning of the 7th of July. We had ex- pected to make Cape Resolution the evening before. Kit and I had been on deck till one o'clock, watching in the gleaming twilight. Never shall I forget those twilights. The sun was not out of sight more than three hours and a half, and the whole northern semi- circle glowed continuously. It shone on the sails ; it shone on the sea. The great glassy faces of the swells cast it back in phosphorescent flashes. The patches of ice showed white as chalk. The ocean took a pale French gray tint. Overhead the clouds drifted in ghostly troops, and far up in the sky an unnatural sort of glare eclipsed the sparkle of stars. Properly speaking, there was no night. One could read easily at one o'clock. Twilight and dawn joined hands. The sun rose far up in the north-east. Queer nights these ! Until we got 32 LEFT ON LABRADOR. 33 used to it, or rather until fatigue conquered us, we had no little difficulty in going to sleep. We were not ac- customed to naps in the daytime. As a sort of com- promise, I recollect that we used to spread an old sail over the skylight, and hang up blankets over the bull's- eyes in the stern, to keep out this everlasting day- light. We needed night. Born far down toward the equinoxes, we sighed for our intervals of darkness and shadows. But we got used to it after a fortnight of gaping. One gets used to any thing, every thing. " Use is second nature," says an old proverb. It is more than that : it is Nature herself. Land and ice, ho ! " Tumble out ! " shouted Eaed. It was half-past three. We went on deck. The sun was shining brightly. Scarcely any wind ; sea like glass in the sunlight ; ice in small patches all about. " Where's your land ? " asked Wade. " Off there," replied young Hobbs, pointing to the north-west. Ah, yes ! there it was, a line of dark gray cliffa, low in the water. Between us and them a dozen white icebergs glittered in the sun. " Is that the cape, captain ? " queried Kit. " Must be," was the reply. " Same latitude. Can't l>e any thing else. Answers to the chart exactly." " Oh ! that's Cape Resolution fast enough," said Eaed. " Those cliffs correspond with the descriptions, I should *ay." How far off? " asked Wade. " Well, seven or eight leagues," replied the captain. 3 34 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " The Button Islands, on the south side of the en- trance, ought to be in sight, to the south-west," re- marked Raed, looking off in that direction; "hut I don't see them," he added. The captain got his glass, and climbed up to the gaff of the foresail. " Yes, there 'tis ! " he shouted. " Low down ; low land. No cliffs." "Why are they called < Button Isles' on the chart? " lie asked, sliding down the shrouds. "Is it because they resemble buttons ? " "No," said Raed. "They were named for Capt. Button, who sailed through here more than a century ago. He was one of those navigators who tried so hard to find the ( north-west passage ' by sailing through Hudson's Straits. During the first half of the eighteenth century, the London merchants sent out ex- peditions nearly every year in the hope of finding a passage through here to China and India. This Button was one of their captains." " Then this low land to the south-west of us is Cape Chidleigh, is it not ? " said Wade. "No," said Raed. "Cape Chidleigh is the main land of Labrador down to the south-east of the Button Isles. You couldn't see that, could you, captain ? " " Saw some high peaks to the south, far down on the horizon. Those are on Labrador, I presume. Couldn't Bay whether they are the cape proper or not. They are in about the direction of the cape as indicated on the chart." As the sun rose higher a breeze sprang up, and the LEFT ON LABRADOR. 35 sails filled. The schooner was headed "W. N. W. to run under the cape ; Bonney being set to watch sharp for the floating ice. " Coffee, sar ! " cried Palmleaf from the companion- way. We went down to breakfast and talk over matters with the captain. It was decided to work ip under the cape, and so, hugging the land on the north side as closely as possible, get into the strait as far as we could that day. We all felt anxious ; for though the sea was now smooth, sky clear, and the wind fair, yet we knew that it was rather the exception than the average. The idea of being caught here among these cliffs and icebergs in a three-days' fog or a north-east gale, with the whole fury of the Atlantic at our backs, was any thing but encouraging. The advice of the elder navigators, " to seize a favorable day and get as far up the straits as possible," kept recurring to our minds. The words had an ominous sound. They were the utterances of many a sad experience. "There never could be a better day nor a fairer wind," remarked the captain. " Now's our chance ; I'm convinced of it," said Kit. The mainsail, which had been taken in the previous evening, and the topsail, were both set ; and, the breeze freshening, "The Curlew" rapidly gathered way. Considerable care had to be used, however, to avoid the broad cakes of ice which were floating out all around us. Small bits, and pieces as large as a hogshead, we paid no attention to ; let the cut- water knock them aside. But there were plenty of large, angular, ugly-looking masses 36 LEFT ON LABRADCfi. which, if struck, would have endangered the schooner'? side. These were sheered off from : so that our course was made up of a series of curves and windings in and out. It seemed odd to see so much ice, and feel the deadly chill of the water, with so hot a sun on deck that the pitch started on the deal planks. In our com- panion-way the thermometer rose to eighty-seven degrees, with icebergs glittering at every point of the compass. By eight o'clock, A.M., we were abreast the cliffs of Resolution Island, at a distance of a couple of miles. With our glasses we examined them attentively. Hoary, gray, and bare, they were, as when first split out of the earth's flinty crust, and thrust above the waves. The bun poured a flood of warm light over them ; but no green thing could be discerned. Either there was no soil, or else the bleak frost-winds effectually checked the outcrop of life. To the south the Button Islands showed like brown patches on the shimmering waves. The width of the straits at this point is given on the chart at twelve leagues, thirty-six miles. We could see the land on either side. By eleven, A.M., we were twenty miles inside the outer cape. The cliffs continued on the north side, and the schooner was headed up within a mile of them. There were no signs of reefs or sunken ledges, however ; and, on heaving the lead, a hundred fathoms of line were run out without touching bottom. The cliffs seem thus to form the side of an immense chasm partially filled by the ocean. Raed estimated their height above the sea to be near four hundred feet. At the distance of a LEFT ON LABRADOR. 37 mile they appeared to tower and almost impend ovei us. Toward noon the wind flawed for half an hour, then dropped altogether. The current, which was setting out to. sea, began to drag us back with it slowly. There wasn't a breath of air stirring. Blazes ! how the sun poured down ! Guard got round in the thin shadow of the mainsail, and actually lolled among icebergs. There we were stuck. That is one of the disadvantages of a sailing-vessel : you have to depend on the wind, the most capricious thing in the universe. I suppose the air-current had veered about from north-east to north, so that the lofty cliffs intercepted them com- pletely. Dinner was eaten. One o'clock, two o'clock. We were glad to take refuge with Guard in the shade of the sails. All around us was a stillness which passes words, broken loudly by our steps on the hot deck, and the occasional graze of ice-cakes against the sides. We felt uneasy enough. This calm was ominous. " There's mischief brewing ! " muttered Kit ; " and here we are in the very jaws of the straits ! " Since the wind dropped, the ice had seemed to thicken ahead. To the southward, farther out from the shore, where the outward current was stronger, we could see it driving along in a glittering procession of white bergs. The wisdom of keeping on the north side of the strait was apparent from this ; though it seemed likely to cost us dear in the consequent loss of the wind. On man}* of the larger cakes we could see dark objects, which the glass disci sed to be seals, sunning. 38 LEFT ON LABRADOR. Presently a dense mass of blue-black clouds loomed suddenly over the brow of the cliffs. " A shower ! " cried Raed. " A squall ! " exclaimd old Trull. " All hands take in sail ! " shouted the captain. x Our Gloucester lads needed no further awakening. We all bore a hand, and had the mainsail down on the boom, short order ; and, while Wade and I tried ouf hand at lashing it with the gaskets, the rest got down the foresail and the topsail. The jib was not furled, but got ready to " let go " in case of fierce gusts. Low, heavy peals of thunder began to rumble behind the cliffs. The dark cloud-mass heaved up, till a misty line of foamy, driving rain and hail showed over the flinty crags. Bright flashes gleamed out, followed shortly by heavy, hollow peals. The naked ledges added vastly, no doubt, to the tone of the reverberations. The rain-drift broke over the cliffs ; but the shower passed mainly to the north-west. Only some scattered drops, with a few big straggling pellets of hail, hit on the deck. An eddy of cool air followed the gust. The jib puffed out on a sudden. " Up with the foresail ! " was the order. It was at once set ; and " The Curlew " started on in the wake of the shower. The cloud passed across the straits diagonally to the south-west. We could see it raining heavily on the ice-flecked water a few miles farther up ; and immediately the whole surface began to steam. We watched it with considerable anxiety. " It will be a fog, I'm afraid," groaned Raed. " It's sure to be," said young Hobbs. " I never seed LEFT ON LABRADOR. 3$ a ecud on the ' Banks ' but 'ut it was allus follered by a fog." White-gray, cold-looking clouds began to drift along the sun from the seaward. A sudden change in the air was felt. Cool, damp gusts swept down from the crags. The thermometer was falling rapidly. It had stood at ninety-four degrees just-previous to the shower. Kit now reported it at seventy-three degrees ; and, in less than an hour, it had fallen twenty degrees more. This sudden change \\ as probably due to the veering of the wind from east round to north. The cold blasts from " Greenland's icy mount ains " speedily dissipated our miniature summer. There wa^ a general rush for great-coats and thick jack- ets. Thin lines of vapor streamed up from the water as the cold gusts swept across it. The hot sun-beams fall- ing on the sea had doubtless raise i the temperature con- siderably, despite the ice ; and this sudden change in the air could but raise a great mist. Yet I doubt whether Nature's wonderful and legitimate processes were ever regarded with greater disfavor and apprehension. "The barometer's falling a good deal too," remarked the captain, coming hastily up the companion-stairs. " Either a rain-storm, or a smart gale from the north'ard : both, perhaps. We're in a tight place." " What's to be done ? " Eaed asked. " Hadn't we better try to beat out of tnc straits into the open sea again, clear of the land and ice ? " said Kit. " Can't do it. It would take all night to do that, if there were no ice to hinder. The gale will come before morning, if it comes at all ; and the entrance of the 40 LEFT- ON LABRADOR. Btraits would be the worst possible place to weathef it." " But, captain, what can we do ? " Wade demanded, '.ooking a little pale. " Well, not much. We must keep on, get as far up the straits as we can ; and then trust to good luck to escape being smashed or jammed. The farther we get up the channel, the less we shall feel the violence of a gale from the seaward. It was a rather gloomy prospect. The sky was thick- ening, and darkened rapidly. The mist kept streaming up from the water. What wind there was continued fitfully. We kept the foresail and the jib set, and jogged on, doubling amid the ice. Meanwhile the fog grew so dense, that every thing was very dim at fifty yards. But for the mist, and the danger of striking against large fragments of ice, we should have set the mainsail and the topsail to make the most of our wind ere it blew too hard ; for it was plainly rising. Now and then a gust would sigh past the sheets. Supper was eaten in squads of two and three. The thermometer fell constantly. It grew so chilly, that we were glad to slip down into the galley occasionally to warm our fingers at Palrnleafs stove. Guard had already taken up his quarters there. " Dig am berry suddin change," the darky would re- mark grively to each of us as we successively made our appearance. "Berry suddin. The gerometurn fallin' fast. Srink 'im all up, ser cold. Now, dis forenoon it am quite comf 'ble j warm 'nu f ter take a nap in the sun : but now oo-oo-ooo ! awful cold ! " And Palmleaf would move his sable cheek up close to the hot stove-pipe, LEFT ON LABRADOR. 41 Guard all the time regarding him soberly from the othei side. Bidding the negro keep coffee hot and ready for us, we would hurry on deck again, and resume our places in the bow ; for it required vigilant eyes to look out for all the ugly ice-cakes among which the schooner was driv- ing. The weather grew thicker, and the sky darker. By half-past ten, P.M., although the sun must have been still high above the horizon, it was dark as one often sees it on a stormy night when there is a moon in the heavens. In fact, it grew too dark to make out the ice- patches ; for, despite our watchfulness, at about five minutes to eleven we struck against a large mass with a shock which made things rattle down stairs. Guard barked, and Palmleaf showed a very scared face in the companion-way. " Where are your eyes there, forward ? " shouted the captain. " Couldn't you see that ? " Just then we grazed pretty heavily against another cake. " It is really getting too dark for us, captain," said Kaed. " Take in the foresail, then." The sail was at once furled. The jib was kept on, however, to hold us steady. We were riow merely breasting the current, and driving on a little with the gusts. Soon it began to rain, rain and snow together. The dreariness and uncertainty of our situation can hardly be imagined. We did not even know how near we were to the foot of the cliffs, and could merely keep tLc schooner headed as she had been during the after- uoon. 42 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " The main thing for us now is to keep her as nearly stationary as we can," said the captain. " Between wind and water, I hope not to move half a knot all night." It was now nearly twelve. "We may as well go helow," said Kit. "No use standing here in the rain when we can do no good." We had been up nearly twenty-one hours since out last nap. Sleep will have its tribute even in the face of danger. Hastily flinging off our wet coats, we lay down. The wind and rain wailed among the rigging above. Chuck-chock, chock-chuck, went the waves under the stern ; while every few minutes a heavy jar- ring bump, followed by a long raspy grind along the side, told of the icy processions floating past. Those were our lullabies that night. Truly it required a sharp summoning of our fortitude not to feel a little home- sick. But we went to sleep ; at least I did, and slept a number of hours. Voices roused me. The captain was standing beside our mattresses. " Wake up ! " he was saying. " Get up, and come on deck ! " At the same moment I heard, indistinctly, a strange, rumbling sound. "What is it? what's the matter ?" cried Kit, start- ing up. " Oh ! don't be scared ; we've been hearing it for some time," replied the captain, "Put on your rubber coats." We did so, and followed him up the stairway. The rain and snow still came fast and thick. The deck was LEFT ON LABRADOR. 43 soppy. Hobbs was at the wheel. Donovan and Wey- mouth were forward. I could just make them out, standing wrapped up against the bulwarks. " Now hark ! " said the captain. We all listened. A heavy noise, like that of some huge flouring-mill in full operation, could be plainly heard above the swash of the waves and the drive and patter of the storm. '' Thunder ? no; it isn't thunder," muttered Raed. "Breakers!" exclaimed Kit. "It's the sea on the rocks, those cliffs, isn't it ? " " Trull," said the captain to that old worthy, who was just poking his head up out of the forecastle, " Trull, is that noise the surf?" The veteran turn an experienced ear aport, listened a moment, and then replied, "No, sir," promptly. " Well, what in the world is it, then ? " The old salt listened again attentively. The steady rumble continued without intermission. "Don't know, sir," replied Trull, shaking his head. " Never heard any thing like it." " Are you sure it's not breakers ? " demanded Kit. " I'm afraid we're drifting on the rocks. It's dead ahead too ! " But neither the captain nor Trull nor Donovan could believe it was the surf. " We began to hear it over an hour ago," remarked the captain. "It sounded low then; we could just hear it : but it grows louder. It's either coming towards us, or else we are going towards it. I presume the storm drives us with it considerably." 44 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " I tell you that it is some dangerous reef! " exclaimed Kit ; " some hole or cavern which the water is playing through." " It may he," muttered the captain. " Starboard the helm, Hobbs ! " At this instant a heavy, near explosion boomed out, followed momentarily by another and another. " Good heavens ! " exclaimed Raed. " Cannon ! " shouted Wade : " it's a vessel in distress ! " " Impossible ! " cried the captain. " No ship would fire cannon here, even if wrecked. There wouldn't be one chance in ten thousand of its being heard by ?Mioth- er vessel." Boom ! " Hark ! did you not hear that splashing noise v -hat followed the explosion ? " demanded Kit. We had all heard it ; for, by this time, the sailors who were below had come on deck. The heavy rumblipcf noise began afresh, and sounded louder than before. W were completely mystified, and stood peering off frou* the bulwarks into the stormy obscurity of the night. " Are there volcanoes on these straits, suppose ? '" Wade asked. No one had ever heard of any. " There were none in my geography," said Raed " But there may be one forming." Indeed, we were so much in doubt, that even this im probable suggestion was caught at for the moment. "But where's the fire and smoke?" replied Kit. "Methinks it ought to be visible." We could feel, rather than see, that the schooner was LEFT ON LABRADOR. 45 veering slowly to the left in obedience to her helm, a fact which left no doubt that we were, as the captain had surmised, drifting with the storm against the current ; or perhaps, before this, the tide coming in had made a counter-current up the straits. The roaring noise was growing more distinct every minute ; till all at once Bon- ney, who was looking attentively out from the bow, ex- claimed, "What's that ahead, captain? Isn't there some- thing?" We all strained our eyes. Dim amid the fog and rain something which seemed like a great pale shadow loomed before the schooner. For a moment we gazed, uncertain whether it were real, or an illusion of darkness ; then Donovan shouted, " Ice ! it's an iceberg ! " " Hard a-starboard ! " yelled Capt. Hazard. It was not a hundred feet distant. Old Trull and Bonney caught up the pike-poles to fend oif with. "The Curlew " drove on. The vast shadowy shape seemed to approach. A chill came with it. A few seconds more, and the bowsprit punched heavily against the ice-moun- tain. The shock sent the schooner staggering back like a pugilist with a " blimmer " between the eyes. Had we been sailing at our usual rate, it would have stove in the whole bow. The storm immediately forced us for- ward again; and the bowsprit, again striking, slid along the ice with a dull, crunching sound as the schooner fell oif sidewise. " Stand by those pike-poles ! " shouted the captain ; for so near was the iceberg, that we could ea&ily reach it with a ten-foot pole from the bulwarks. 46 LEFT ON LABRADOR. Striking the iron spikes into the ice, the men held the schooner off while she drifted past. The rumbling noise, louder than before, seemed now to come from out the solid berg. " Let's get away from this before it splits or explodes again ! " exclaimed Raed. "Heavens! it sounds like a big grist-mill in full blast 1 " said Kit. "More like a powder-mill, I should judge from the blasts we heard a few minutes ago," remarked Wade. More poles were brought up, and we all lent a hand to push off from our dangerous neighbor. After fending along its massy side for several hundred yards, we got off clear from an angle. " Farewell, old thunder-mill ! " laughed Kit. But we had not got clear of it so easily : for the vast lofty mass so broke off the wind and storm, that, imme- diately on passing it to the leeward, we hadn't a " breath of air ; " and, as a consequence, the berg soon drifted down upon us. Again we pushed off from it, and set the fore- sail. The sail merely flapped occasionally, and hung idly; and again the iceberg came grinding against us. There were no means of getting off save to let down the boat, and tow the schooner out into the wind, rather a ticklish job among ice, and in so dim a light. " The Curlew " lay broadside against the berg, but did not seem to chafe or batter much : on the contrary, we were borne along by the ice with far less motion than if out in open water. " Well, why not let her go so ? " said Kit after we had lain thus a few minutes. " There doesn't seem to LEFT ON LABRADOR 4? be any great danger in it. This side of the iceberg, so far as I can make it out, doesn't look very dangerous." "Not a very seamanlike way of doing business," re- marked the captain, looking dubiously around. " Catching a ride on an iceberg," laughed Weymouth. " That sort of thing used to be strictly forbidden at fechool." " But only listen to that fearful rumble and roar ! " said Eaed. " It seems to come from deep down in the berg. What is it?" " Must be the sea rushing through some crack, or pos- sibly the rain-water and the water from the melted ice on top streaming down through some hole into the sea," said the captain. " But those explosions ! how would you account for those ? " asked Wade. "Well, I can't pretend to explain that. I have an idea, however, that they resulted from the splitting off of large fragments of ice." On the whole, it was deemed most prudent to let the schooner lay where she was, till daylight at least. Planks were got up from below, and thrust down between the side and the ice to keep her from chafing against the sharp angles. By this time it was near six o'clock, morning, and hal begun to grow tolerably light. The rain still con- tinued, however, as did also the bellowings inside the iceberg. Old Trull and Weymouth were set to watch the ice, and the rest of us went down to breakfast. The schooner lay so still, that it seemed like being on shore again. We had got as far as our second cup of coffee, 48 LEFT ON LABRADOR. I recollect, when we were startled by another of the same heavy explosions we had heard a few hours previ- ous. It was followed instantly by a second. Then we heard old Trull sing out, " Avast from under ! " And, a moment later, there was a tremendous crash on deck, accompanied by a hollow, rattling sound. Drop- ping our knives and forks, we sprang up the companion- way. "What was that, Trull?" demanded Capt. Hazard. " A chunk of ice, sir, as big as my old sea-chest ! " " How came that aboard ? " "Rained down, sir. Went up frum the top o' the barg, sir, at that thunder-clap, and came plumb down on deck." The deck-planks were shattered and split where it had struck, and pieces of ice the size of a quart measure lay all about. " Did you see it fly up from the top of the berg, Wey- mouth ? " Raed asked. " Yes, sir. It didn't go up till the second pop. I was looking then. It went up like as if it had been shot from a gun ; went up thirty or forty feet, then turned in the air, and came down on us. Thought 'twould sink us, sir, sure. There were streams of water in the air at the same time ; and water by the hogshead came sloshing over the side of the ice." " I don't understand that at all," said the captain. "We must investigate it," said Kaed, "if we can. But let's make sure of our breakfast first. I suppose there will be no great danger in letting down the boat LEFT ON LABRADOR. 49 as soon as it gets fairly light, will there, captain? This iceberg seems to he a rather mysterious chap. I propose that we circumnavigate it in the boat. Perhaps we may find a chance to climb on to it." It was already light ; and, by the time breakfast was over, the rain had subsided to a drizzly mist : but the fog was still too thick to see far in anj r direction. The sea continued comparatively calm. A few minutes after seven, the boat was lowered. Raed and the rest of us boys, with the captain and Weymouth, got in, and pulled round to the windward of the berg. It was a vast, ma- jestic mass, rising from forty to fifty feet above the water, and covering three or four acres. On the south, south-east, and east sides it rose almost perpendicularly from the sea. Ko chance to scale it here ; and, even if there had been, the water was much too rough to the windward to bring the boat up to it. We continued around it, however, and, near the north-west corner, espied a large crevice leading up toward the top, and filled with broken ice. " Might clamber up there," suggested the captain. It looked a little pokerish. "Let's try it," said Kit. The boat was brought up within a yard or so of the ice. Watching his chance, Capt. Hazard leaped into the crack. " Jump, and I'll catch you if you miss," said he. Tlaed jumped, and got on all right ; but Kit slipped. The captain caught him by the arm, and pulled him up, with no greater damage than a couple of wet trousers- legs. Wade and I followed dry-shod. 4 50 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " Shore off a few yards, Wey mouth, and be really in case we slip down," directed the captain. But we had no difficulty in climbing up. The top of the berg was irregular and rough, with pinnacles and "knolls," between which were many deep puddles of water, fresh water : we drank from one. For some time we saw nothing which tended to explain the explosions ; though the dull, roaring noise still con- tinued, seeming directly under our feet: but on crossing over to the south-west side, beneath which the schooner lay, Wade discovered a large, jagged hole something like a well. It was five or six feet across, and situated twenty or twenty-five yards from the side of the berg. Standing around this " well," the rumbling noises were more distinct than we had yet heard them, and were accompanied by a great plashing, and also by a hissing sound, as of escaping air or steam ; and, on peering cau- tiously down into the hole, we could discern the water in motion. The iceberg heaved slightly with the swell : the gurgling and hissing appeared to follow the heaving motion. " I think there must be great cavities down in the ice, which serve as chambers for compressed air," remarked Raed; "and somehow the heaving of the berg acts as an air-pump, something like an hydraulic ram, you know." As none of us could suggest any better explanation, we accepted this theory, though it was not very clear. AVe were going back toward the crevice, when a loud gurgling roar, followed by a report like the discharge of a twenty-four-pounder, made the berg tremble; and, turning, we saw the water streaming from the well LEFT ON LABRADOR. 51 Another gurgle and another report succeeded, almost in the same instant. Jets of water, and bits of ice, were spouted high into the air, and came down splashing and glancing about. We made off as expeditiously as we could. Fortunately none of the pieces of ice struck us; though Wade and Eaed, who were a little behind, were well bespatterd. We hurried down to the boat, greatly to the relief of Weymouth, who expected we had " got blown up." [Raed begs me to add that he hopes the reader will be able to suggest a better explanation of this singular phe- nomenon than the one that has occurred to him.] Jumping to the boat, we pulled round to "The Cur- lew." The sailors were watching for us, with a touch of anxiety on their rough, honest faces. " Throw us a line ! " shouted Capt. Hazard ; " and bear a hand at those pike-poles to shove her off. We'll get clear of this iceberg as quick as we can. Something the matter with its insides : liable to bust, I'm afraid." Catching the line, we bent to the oars, and, with the help of the men with the poles, tugged the schooner off, and gradually towed her to a distance of three or four hundred yards from fie berg. The boat was then taken in, sail made, and we were again lumping on up the straits. CHAPTER IV. The Fog lifts. A Whale in Sight. Craggy Black Mountains capped with Snow. A Novel Carriage for the Big Rifle. Mounting the Howitzer. A Doubtful Shot. The Lower Savage Isles. A Deep Inlet. "Mazard's Bay," A Desolate Island. An Ice-Jam. ' A Strange Blood-red Light. Solution of the Mystery. Going Ashore. Barren Ledges. Beds of Moss. A Bald Peak. An Alarm. The Schooner in Jeopardy. The Crash and Thunder of the Ice. Tremendous Tides. rain had now pretty much ceased. Some sud- - den change took place in the air's density ; for the fog, which had all along lain flat on the sea, now rap- idly rose up like a curtain, twenty, thirty, fifty feet, leav- ing all clear below. We looked around us. The dark water was besprinkled with white patches, among which the seals were leaping and frisking about. Half a mile to the left we espied a lazy water-jet playing up at inter- vals. " There she blows ! " laughed Bonney. " Seems like old times, I declare ! " " What's that, sir ? " asked Capt. Hazard, who had been below for the last ten minutes. " A sperm-whale on the port quarter, sir ! " Two or three miles ahead, another large iceberg waa driving grandly down. We could also see our late con- sort a mile astern, see and hear it too. Higher and 52 LEFT ON LABRADOR. 53 higher rose the fog. The sky brightened through tran- sient rifts in the clouds. Glad enough were we to see it clearing up. Either the land had fallen off to the north ; or else, in our fear of running on the cliffs, we had declined a go^d deal from our course. The northern shore was now three or four leagues distant. Fog and darkness hung over it. The bases of the mountains were black ; but their tops glistened with snow, the snow-line showing distinct two or three hundred feet above the shore. The sails were trimmed, and the helm put round to bear up nearer. " What a country ! " exclaimed Raed, sweeping it with his glass. " Is it possible that people live there ? What can be the inducements ? " " Seals, probably," said Kit, " seals and whales. That's the Esquimaux bill of fare, I've heard, varied with an occasional white bear or a sea-horse." "A true 'Husky' (Esquimau) won't eat a mouthful of cooked victuals," said Capt. Hazard ; " takes every thing raw." " Should think so much raw meat would make them fierce and savage," remarked Wade : " makes dogs sav- age to give them raw meat." " But the Esquimaux are a rather good-natured set, I've heard," replied Kit. " Not always," said the captain. " The whalers have trouble with them very often J though these whalemen are doubtless any thing but angels," he added. " In dealing with them, it is well to have a good show of muskets, or a big srun or two. showing its muzzle : makes 64 LEW ON LABRADOR. 'em more civil. Cases have been where they've boarded a scantily-manned vessel ; to get the plunder, you see. Hungry for any thing of the axe or iron kind." " It would not be a bad plan to get up our howitzer, and rig a carriage for it," said Wade. " Let's do it." " And Wash's cannon-rifle," said Kit. " We ought to get that up. I think it's about time to test that ratlier remarkable arm." " The problem with me is how to mount it," said I. " I was thinking of that the other day," remarked the captain. " I've got a big chest below, an old thing I don't use now : we might make the gun fast to the top of it ; then put some trucks on the bottom just high enough to point it out over the bulwarks. Here, Hobbs : come below, and help me fetch it on deck." While they were getting up the chest, Eaed and 1 brought up the cannon-rifle. It was about as much as we could get up the stairs with easily. It was, as the reader will probably remember, set in a light framework of wrought-iron, adjusted to a swivel, and arranged with A screw for raising or lowering the breech at will. The bed-pieces of the framework had been pierced for screws. It was, therefore, but a few minutes' work to bore holes in the top of the chest and drive the screws. Mean- while the captain, who enjoyed the scheme as well as any of us, split open a couple of old tackle-blocks, and, get- ting out the trucks, proceeded to set them on the ends of two stout axles cut from an old ice-pole. These axles were then nailed fast to the bottom of the chest. The gun-carriage was then complete, and could be rolled any- where on deck \\ith ease. LEFT UN LABRADOR. 55 " Decidedly neat ! " exclaimed Capt. Mazard, survey- ing it with a grin of self-approbation. " What say to that, Trull ? " cried Eaed. The old man-of-war's-inan had been watching the progress of the invention with an occasional tug at his waistband. " Yes ; how's that in your eye ? " exclaimed the cap- tain. " You're a military character. Give us an opin- ion on that." " Wai, sur," cocking his eye at it, " I'm free to confass I naver saw any thing like it ; " and that was all we could get out of him. "Bring some ammunition, and let's give it a trial," i*aid Kit. I brought up the powder-flask, caps, and a couple of bullets. The bullets we had run for it were of lead, about an inch in diameter, and weighed not far from six ounces apiece. The breech was depressed. B,aed poured in half a gill of the fine powder by measurement ; a wad of paper was rammed down ; then a bullet was driven home. There only remained to prime and cap it. " Fire at one of these seals," suggested Wade, point- ing to where a group of three or four lay basking on an ice-cake at a distance of eight or ten hundred yards. " Who'll take the first shot ? " said Kit. Nobody seemed inclined to seize the honor. " Come, now, that seal's getting impatient ! " cried the captain. Still no one volunteered to shoot off the big rifle. " I think Wash had better fire the first shot," re marked Raed. "The honor clearly belongs to him." 56 LEFT ON LABRADOR. Seeing they were a little disposed to rally me on it, J stepped up and cocked it. At that everybody hastily stood back. I took as good aim as the motion of the schooner would permit ; though I think I should have done better had not Palmleaf just at that moment sang out, " Dinner, sar !." from behind. I pulled the trigger, however. There was a stunning crack ; and so smart a recoil, that I was pushed half round sidewise with amazing spitefulness. The old chest rolled back, whirled round, and upset against the bulwarks on the other side. The reader can imagine what a rattle and racket it made. " Golly ! " exclaimed Palmleaf. " Am crazy ! " " Did it hit the seal ? " recovering my equilibrium. Wade was the only one who had watched the seal. " I saw him flop off into the water," said he. " Then of course it hit him," said I. Nobody disputed it ; though I detected an odious winfe between the captain and Kit. The prostrate gun was got up on its legs again ; old Trull remarking that we had better trig it behind before we fired, in future : that duty attended to, he thought it might work very well. We then went to dinner. How to mount the howitzer was the next question. "We need a regular four-wheeled gun-carriage foi that,' 1 said Raed. "I think we can make one out of those planks," re- marked Kit. " The worst trouble will come with the wheels," said Wade. LEFT ON LABRADOR 57 But Capt. Hazard thought he could saw them out of tections of fifteen-inch plank with the wood-saw. " I'll undertake that for my part," he added, and, aa soon as dinner was over, went about it. "Now we'll gei old man Trull to help us on the body" said Kit. The planks, with axe, adze, auger, and hammer, were carried on deck. Our old man-of-war's-man readily lent a hand ; and with his advice, particularly in regard to the cheeks for the trunnions, we succeeded during the afternoon in getting up a rough imitation of the old- fashioned gun-carriage in use on our wooden war-ves- sels. The captain made the wheels and axles. The body was then spiked to them, and the howitzer lifted up and set on the carriage. By way of testing it, we then charged the piece with half a pint of powder, and fired it. The sharp, brassy report was reverberated from the dark mountains on the starboard side in a wonderfully distinct echo. Hundreds of seals dropped off the ice-cakes into the sea all about, a fact I ob- served with some mortification. As the guns would have to remain on deck, exposed to fog and rain, we stopped the muzzles with plugs, and covered them with two of our rubber blankets. They were then lashed fast, and left for time of need. During the day, we had gradually come up with what we at first had taken for a cape or a promontory from the mainland, but which, by five o'clock, P.M., was dis- covered to be a group of mountainous islands, the same known on the chart as the " Lower Savage Isles." ' The courev was changed five points, to pass them to the 58 LEFT ON LABKADOR. southward. By seven o'clock we were off abreast ore of the largest of them. It was our intention to stand on this course during the night. The day had at no time, however, been exactly fair. Foggy clouds had hung ahout the sun; and now a mist beg^n to rise from the water, much as it had done the previous even- ing. " If I thought there might be any tolerable safe an- chorage among those islands," muttered the captain, with his glass to his eye, " I should rather beat in there than take the risk of running o to another iceberg in the fog." This sentiment was unanimous. "There seems to be a clear channel between this near- est island and the next," remarked Raed, who had been looking attentively for some moments. " We could but bear up there, and see what it looks like." The helm was set a-port, and the sails swung round to take the wind, which, for the last hour, had been shift- ing to the south-east. In half an hour we were up in the mouth of the channel. It was a rather narrow opening, not more than thirty-five or forty rods in width, with considerable ice floating about. We were in some doubt as to its safety. The schooner was hove to, and the lead thrown. " Forty-seven fathom ! " " All right ! Bring her round ! " The wind was light, or we should hardly have made into an unknown passage with so much sail on : as it was, we did but drift lazily in. On each side, the islands presented black, bare, flint} crags, distant scarcely a LEFT ON LABRADOR. 59 pistol shot from the deck. A quarter of :i mile in, WP sounded a second time, and had forty-three fathoms. " Never saw a deeper gut for its width ! " exclaimed Capt. Mazard. "What a chasm there would he here were the sea out of it ! " Half a mile farther up, a third and smaller island lay at the head of the channel, which was thus divided by it into two narrow arms, one leading out to the north- east, the other to the north-west. This latter arm was clear of ice, showing a dark line of water crooking off among numerous small islets ; but the arm opening up to the north-east was jammed with ice. "The Curlew" went in leisurely to three hundred yards of the foot of the island, where we found thirty-three fathoms, and hove to within a hundred yards of the ledges of the island on the east side. The anchor was now let go, and the sails furled. " We're snug enough here from any thing from the north-east or north," remarked Capt. Hazard; "and even a sou'-wester would hardly affect us much a mile up this narrow inlet." It seemed a tolerably secure berth. The schooner lay as still as if at her whajf at far-distant Portland. There was no perceptible swell in the channel. Despite the vast mass of ice "packed" into the arm above us, it was not disagreeably chilly. The thermometer stood at fifty-nine degrees in our cabin. Indeed, were it not for the great bodies of ice, these extreme northern sum- mers, where the sun hardly sets for months, would get insufferably hot, too hot to be endured by man. The mist steamed silently up, up. Gradtfally the 60 LEFT ON LABRADOR. islands, the crags, and even objects at the schooner's length, grew indistinct, and dimmed out entirely by half- past ten. We heard the "honk, honk" of numerous wild-geese from the islands; and, high overhead, the melancholy screams of " boatswains." Otherwise all was quiet. The watch was arranged among the sailors, and we went to bed. For the last sixty hours we had had not over seven hours of sleep. Now was a good time to make up. Profound breathing soon resounded along the whole line of mattresses. We had been asleep two or three hours, when a shake aroused me. A strange, reddish glare filled the cabin. Donovan was standing at my head. " What's up ? " I asked. " Fire ? It isn't fire, is it ? " jumping up. " No, it's not fire," replied Donovan. "Oh ! morning, then," I said, greatly relieved. " No ; can't be. It's only one o'clock." "Then what is it, for pity sake?" I demanded in fresh wonder. "Don't know, sir. Thought I'd just speak to you. Perhaps you'll know what it is. Won't you go up. It's a queer sight on deck." "Of course I will. Go ahead. No matter about waking the others just yet, though." The cold mist struck in my face on emerging from the companion-way. It was still very foggy and damp. Such a scene ! The sky was of a deep rose-color. The thick fog seemed like a sea of magenta. The deck, the bulwarks, the masts, and even Donovan standing beside me, looked as if baptized in blood. It was as light as, LEFT ON LABRADOR. 61 even lighter than, when we had gone below. Tne cliffs on the island, drear and black by daylight, showed like mountains of red beef through the crimson fog. " It was my watch," said Donovan. " I was all alone here. Thought I would just speak to you. Come on quite sudden. I didn't know just what to make of it." " N"o wonder you didn't." " I knew it couldn't be morning," he went on. " There must be a great fire somewhere round : don't you think so, sir ? " I was trying to think. Queer sensations came over me. I looked at my watch. It was four minutes past one. Donovan was right : it couldn't be morning. A sudden thought struck me. " It's the northern lights, Donovan ! " I exclaimed. "So red as this?" " Yes : it's the fog." " Do you really think so ? " with a relieved breath. "There's no doubt of it." " But it makes a funny noise." "Noise?" " Yes : I heard it several times before I called you. Hark! There!" A soft rushing sound, which was neither the wind (for there was none), nor the waves, nor the touch of ice, could be heard at brief intervals. It seemed far aloft. I am at a loss how to describe it best. It was not unlike the faint rustle of silk, and still more like the flapping of a large flag in a moderate gale of wind. Occasionally there would be a soft snap, which was much like the snapping of a flag. I take the more pains to 62 LEFT ON LABRADOR etate this fact explicitly, because I am aware that the statement that the auroral phenomena are accompanied by audible sounds has been disputed by many writers. I have only to add, that, if they could not have heard the " rustlings " from the deck of "The Curlew" that night, they must have been lamentably deaf. The light wavered visibly, brightening and waning with marvellous swiftness. "Shall we call the other young gentlemen?" Dono- van asked. " Yes ; but don't tell them what it is. See what they will think of it." In a few moments Kit and Wade and Raed were coming out of the companion-way, rubbing their eyes in great bewilderment. They were followed by the cap- tain. " Heavens ! '' he exclaimed. " Is the ship on fire ? " " Fire ! " cried Wade excitedly, catching at the last word : " did you say fire ? " " No, no ! " exclaimed Kit. " It's nothing nothing but daybreak ! " "It's only one o'clock," said Donovan, willing to keep them in doubt. Capt. Mazard was rushing about, looking over the bul- warks. " There's no fire," said he, " unless it's up in the sky. But, by Jove ! if you aren't a red-looking set ! redder than lobsters ! " "Not redder than yerself, cap'n," laughed Donovan, who greatly enjoyed their mystification. "The sea is like blood!" exclaimed Wade. "You LEFT ON LABRADOR. 63 don't suppose the day of judgment has come and raught as away up here in Hudson's Straits, do you ? " " Not quite so bad as that, I guess," said Raed. " I have it : it's the aurora borealis ; nothing worse, nor more dangerous." I had expected Raed would come to it as soon as he had got his eyes open. " A red aurora ! " said the captain. " Is that the way you explain it ? " " Not a red aurora exactly," returned Raed, " hut an aurora shining down through the thick fog. The aurora itself is miles above the fog, up in the sky and probably of the same bright yellow as usual ; bu 1 the dense mist gives it this red hue." " I've heard that the northern lights were caust I by electricity," said Weyinouth. " Is that so ? " "It is thought to be electricity passing through the air high up from the earth," replied Raed. " That's what the scientific men tell us." "They can tell us that, and we shall be just as wise as we were before," said Kit. "They can't tell us whet electricity is." "Why!" exclaimed the captain, "I thought elec- tricity was " " Well, what ? " said Kit, laughing. " Why, the the stuff they telegraph with," finished the captain a little confusedly. " Well, what's that ? " persisted Kit. "What is it?" repeated the captain confidently. " Why, it is well Hang it ! I don't know ! '' We all burst out laughing : the captain himself 64 LEFT ON LABRADOR. laughed, his case was so very nearly like everybody '? who undertakes to talk about the wondrous, subtle element. By the by, his definition of it viz., that it ia " the stuff we telegraph with " strikes me as being about the best one I ever heard. Kit and Raed, however, have got a theory, which they expound very gravely, to the effect that electricity and the luminiferous ether that thin medium through which light is propagated from the sun, and which pervades all matter are one and the same thing ; which, of course, is all very fine as a theory, and will be finer when they can give the proof of it. After watching the aurora for some minutes longer, during which it kept waxing and waning with alternate pale-crimson and blood-red flushes, we .went back to our bunks ; whence we were only aroused by Palmleaf call- ing us to breakfast. If there was any wind that morning it must have been from the east, when the crags of the island under which we lay would have interrupted it. Not a breath reached the deck of " The Curlew ; " and we were thus obliged to remain at our anchorage, which, in compliment to the captain, and after the custom of navigators, we named hazard's Bay. As the inlet bore no name, and was not even indicated on the charts we had with us, we felt at liberty to thus designate it, leaving to future explorers the privilege of rechristening it at their pleasure. 11 We shall have a lazy morning of it," Kit remarked as we stood loitering about the deck. " I propose that we let down the boat, and go ashore on the island," said Wade. " 'Twould seem good to set footou something firm once more." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 65 " Well, those ledges look firm enougl ," replied Raed. f See here, captain : here's a chap begging to get ashore. Is it safe to trust him off the ship ? " " Hardly," laughed Capt. Mazard. " He might de- sert." " Then I move we all go with him," said Kit. " Let's take some of those muskets along too. May get a shot at those wild-geese we heard last evening." The boat was lowered. We boys and the captain, with Donovan and Hobbs to row us, got over the rail, and paddled to where a broad jetting ledge formed a natural quay, on which we leaped. The rock was worn smooth by the waves of centuries. To let the sailors go ashore with us, we drew up the boat on the rock several feet, and made it fast with a line knotted into a crevice between two fragments of flinty sienite rock at the foot of the crags. We then, with considerable difficulty and mutual " boosting," clambered up to the top of the cliffs, thirty or forty feet above the boat, and thence made our way up to the summit of a bald peak half a mile from the shore, which promised a good prospect of the surrounding islands. It is hardly pos- sible to give an idea of the desolate aspect of these ledgy. islets. There was absolutely no soil, no earth, on them. More than half the surface was bare as black sienite could be. Huge leathery lichens hung to the rocks in patches; and so tough were they, that one might pull on them with his whole strength without tearing them. In the crevices and tiny ravines bet ween the ledges, there were vast beds of damp moss. In crossing these we went knee-deep, and once waist-deep, 5 66 LEFT ON LABRADOR. into it. The only plant I saw was a trailing shrnblet, sometimes seen on high mountains in New England, and known to botanists as Andromeda of the heathworts. It had pretty blue-purple flowers, and was growing quite plentifully in sheltered nooks. Not a bird nor an air'mal was to be seen. Half an hour's climbing took us to the brown weather-beaten summit of the peak. From this point eleven small islands were in sight, none of them more than a few miles in extent; and, at a dis- tance of seven or eight leagues, the high mountains of the northern main, their tops white with snow, with glit- tering glaciers extending down the valleys, the source of icebergs. There was a strong current of air across the crest of the peak. Sweeping down from the wintry mountains, it made us shiver. The sea was shimmering in the sun, and lay in silvery threads amid the brown isles. Below us, and almost^at our feet, was the schooner, our sole connecting link with the world of men, her cheery pine-colored deck just visible over the shore clifi's. Suddenly, as we gazed, she swung oft', showing her bow ; and we saw the sailors jumping about the windlass. " What does that mean ? " exclaimed Capt. Hazard. " Possible they've got such a breeze as that down there ? Why, it doesn't blow enough here to swing the vessel round like that ! " " But only look down the inlet ! " said Donovan. " How wild it seems ! See those lines of foam ! Hark ' " A rushing noise as of some great river foaming among bowlders began to be heard. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 67 " It's the tide coming in ! " shouted the captain, start- ing to run down the rocks. The schooner had swung back and round the other way. What we had read of the high and violent tides in these straits flashed into my mind. The captain was making a bee-line for the vessel : the rest of us followed as fast as we could run. "Just what good we any of us expected to be able to do was not very clear. But " The Curlew " was our all : we couldn't see it endangered without rushing to the rescue. Pant- ing, we arrived on the ledges overlooking the boat and the schooner. The tide had already risen ten or a dozen feet. The boat had floated up from the rock, and broken loose from the line. We could see it tossing and whirling half way out to the schooner. The whole inlet boiled like a pot, and roared like a mill-race. Huge eddies as large as a ten-pail kettle came whirling in under the cliffs. The whole bay was filling up. The waters crept rapidly up the rocks. But our eyes were riveted on the schooner. She rocked ; she wriggled like a weather-cock ; then swung clean round her anchor. " If it will only hold her ! " groaned Capt. Hazard. " But, if it drags, she'U strike ! " Old Trull, Wey mouth, and Bonney were at the wind- lass, easing out the cable as the vessel rose on the tide. Corliss was at the wheel, tugging and turning, to what purpose was not very evident. But they were do- ing their level best to save the vessel : that was plain. Capt. Mazard stood with clinched hands watching them, every muscle and nerve tense as wire. I was hoping the most dangerous crisis had passed, 68 LEFT ON LABRADOR. when a tremendous noise, like a thunder-peal low down to the earth, burst from the ice-jammed arm of the inlet to the north-east. We turned instantly in that direction The whole pack of ice, filling the arm for near a half- mile, was in motion, grating and grinding together. From where we stood, the noise more resembled heavy, near thunder than any thing else I can compare it with. "It's the tide bursting round from the north-east side ! " exclaimed Kit. " Took it a little longer to come in among the islands on the north side," said Eaed, gazing intently at the fearful spectacle. The noise nearly deafened us. The whole vast ma?s of ice millions of tons was heaving and sliding, cake over cake. It had lain piled fifteen or twenty feet above the water ; but the tide surging under it and through it caused it to mix and churn together. We could see the water gushing up through crevices, some- times in fountains of forty or fifty feet, hurling up large fragments of ice. The phenomenon was gigantic in all its aspects. To us, who expected every moment to see it borne forward and crush the schooner, it was appall- ing. But the sea filling in on the south, added to the narrowness of the arm, prevented the jam from rushing through ; though a great deal of ice did float out, and, caught in the swirling currents, bumped pretty hard against the vessel's sides. The schooner swayed about heavily ; but the anchor held miraculously, as we thought Once we fancied it had given way, and held our breath till the cable tightened sharply again. The grating and thundering of the jam gradually dulled, muffled by LEFT ON LABRADOR. G9 the water. Our thoughts reverted to our own situation. The sea had risen within five feet of the place where we were standing. To get up here in the morning we had been obliged to scale a precipice. " It must have risen fully thirty feet," said Kit. "What a mighty tide!" "Why should it rush in -here with so much greater violence than it does down on the coast of Massachusetts or at Long Branch ? " questioned Wade. " How do you explain it, captain ? " " It is because the coasts, both above and below the mouth of the straits, converge after the manner of a tunnel. The tidal wave from the Atlantic is thus accumulated, and pours into the straits with much more than ordinary violence. The same thing occurs in the Bay of Fundy, where they have very high tides. But I had no idea of such violence," he added, " or I shouldn't have risked the schooner so near the rocks. Why, that inlet ran like Niagara rapids ! " " What an evidence this gives one of the strength of the moon's attraction ! " said K aed. " All this great mass of water thirty feet high is drawn in here by the moon. What enormous force ! " "And this vast power is exerted over a distance of two hundred and thirty-eight thousand miles," remarked Kit. " I can't understand this attraction of gravitation, how it is exerted," said Wade. "No more can any one," replied Eaed. ' It is said that this attraction of the moon, or at least Mie friction of the tides on the ocean-bed which it causes, 70 LEFT ON LABRADOR. is exerted in opposition to the revolution of the earth on its axis, and that it will thus at some future time stop that motion altogether," Kit remarked. " That's what Prof. Tyndall thinks." " Then there would be an end of day and night," said ; "or rather it would be all day on one side of the earth, and all night on the other." " That would be unpleasant," laughed Wade ; " worse than they have it up at the north pole." " It is some consolation," said Kaed, "to know that such a state of things is not likely to come in our time. Ac- cording to a careful calculation, the length of the day is not thus increased more than a second in a hundred and sixty-eight thousand years." " But how are we to go aboard, sir ? " inquired Hobbs, to whom our present fix was of more interest than the long days of far-distant posterity. The boat had been tossed about here and there, and was now some twenty or thirty yards astern of the schooner. " Have to swim for it," said Donovan. " Not in this icy water, I hope," said Kit. " Can't we devise a plan to capture it ? " " They might tie a belaying-pin to the end of .% line, and throw it into the boat," said the captain. " Or, better still, one of those long cod-lines with the heavy sinker and hook on it," suggested Hobbs. " Just the thing ! " exclaimed Capt. Hazard. " Sing out to them ! " " Unless I'm mistaken, that is just what old Trull is up to now," said Wade. " He's throwing something , eee that ! " LEFT ON LABRADOR. 71 As Wade said, old man Trull was throwing a line, with what turned out to be one of our small grapnels attached. The first throw fell short, and the line was drawn in ; the second and third went aside ; but the fourth landed the grapnel in the boat. It was hauled in. Weymouth and Corliss then got aboard, and came off to us. " Well, boys, what sort of a dry storm have you been having here ? " said the captain as they came up under where we stood. " Never saw such a hole ! " exclaimed Weymouth. "You don't know how we were slat about ! We went right up on it ! Had to pay out six fathom of extra cable, anyway. D'ye mind what a thundering noise that ice made ? " We went off to the schooner. Trull stood awaiting us, grinning grimly. " I don't gen'ly give advice to my betters," he began, with a hitch at his trousers ; " but " " You'd be getting out of this ? " finished Raed. " I wud, sur." There was a general laugh all round. But the wind had set dead in the south-east again. There was no room for tacking in the narrow inlet. To get out we should have to tow the schooner a mile against the wind, among ice too. Clearly we must lay here till the wind favored. We concluded, however, to change our position for one a little lower down, and nearer the middle of the cove. The anchor was heaved up preparatory to towing the vessel along. The men had considerable difficulty in starting it off the bottom ; and, on getting it up, one of the flukes was found to be chipped off, bits as large as one'a 72 LEFT ON LABRADOR. fist, probably from catching among jaggod rocks at the bottom. We thought that this might also account for the tenacity with which the anchor held against the tide. Doubtless there were crevices and cracks, with great bowlders, scattered about on the bottom of the cove. Towing " The Curlew " back not far from a hun- dred yards from our first berth, the anchor was again let go in thirty-seven fathoms ; and, for additional security, a second cable was bent to our extra anchor, which we dropped out of the stern. This matter, with arrange- ments for heaving the anchor up with tackle and fall (for we had no windlass in the stern), took up the time tilJ considerably past noon. CHAPTER V. A Dead Narwhal. Snowy Owls. Two Bears in Sight. Firing on them with the Howitzer. A Bear-Hunt among the Ice. An Ice " Jungle." An Exciting Chase. The Bear turns. Palmleaf makes "a Sure Shot."" Run, you Black Son! " ABOUT two o'clock a dead narwhal came floating out with the ice from the north-east arm, and passed quite near the schooner, so near, that we could judge pretty accurately as to its length, which we estimated to he twenty or twenty-two feet ; and its horn, or tusk, which was partly under water, could not have heen less than five feet. "Killed among the ice there, I reckon," said Capt Mazard. " Crushed up. I should not wonder if there were a great many large fish killed so." It seemed not improbable ; for we had seen several snowy owls hovering over the ice-packs; and about an hcur afterwards, as we were reading in the cabin, Wey- mouth came down to say that a couple of bears were in sight up there among the ice. We went up immediate- ly. None of us had ever seen a white bear, save at menageries, where they had to keep the poor brutes dripping with ice-water, they were so near roasting with our climate. To see a white bear prowling in his native icp-lastnesses was, therefore, a novel spectacle for us. 73 74 LEFT ON LABRADOR. They were distant from the echooner, at a rough guess, five hundred yards, and seemed to have a good deal of business about a hole, or chasm, among the loose joe at some distance up the arm. " Seal or a dead finner in there, I'll be bound," said the captain. " No w, boys, there's a chance for a bear- huut-I " , " Suppose we give 'em a shot from my cannon-rifle," J suggested. "Better take the howitzer," said Raed. "Load it with a grist of those bullets." " That'll be the most likely to fetch 'em," laughed the captain. Wade ran down after the powder and balls. The rest of us unlaslied the gun, got off the rubber-cloth, and trundled it along to point it over the starboard rail. Kaed then swabbed it out ; Kit poured in the powder ; while Wade and I rammed down a wad of old news- paper. "Now put in a good dose of these blue-pills," ad- vised the captain, scooping up both hands full from the bag in which we kept them. "Ef you war ter jest tie 'em up, or wrop 'em in a bit of canvas, they'd go straighter, and wouldn't scatter round so bad," remarked old Trull, who was not an uninterested spectator of the proceedings. "Make them up sort of grape or canister shot Cushion, you mean," said Raed. " Yes ; that's what I mean, ter keep 'em frum sc.-it- terin'." "Not a bad idea," said Capt. Hazard. " Wey- LEFT ON LABRADOR. 7ft mouth, bring a piece of old canvas and a bit of manil*- yarn." About a quart of the ounce balls were hastily wrapped in the canvas, and lashed up with the hempen twine. The bag was then rammed down upon the pow- der, and the howitzer pointed. "Let old Trull do the shooting," whispered Kit. " He will be as likely to hit as any of us." " Mr. Trull," Capt. Hazard began, " we must look to you to shoot those bears for us. Pepper 'em good, now ! " At that we all stood away from the gun. The old fellow grinned, hesitated a moment, then stepped for- ward, evidently not a little nattered by the confidence reposed in him. First he sighted the piece very methodi- cally. The schooner lay perfectly stilj. A better chance for a shot cquld hardly have been asked for. Palmleaf now came up with a bit of tarred rope lighted at the stove, and smoking after the manner of a slow match, with a red coal at the end. Trull took the rope, and, watching his chance till both the bears were in sight and near each other, touched the priming, TIZZ-Z-Z-WHA.XG \ The carriage recoiled almost as smartly as my big rifle had done. Why is it that a person standing near a gun especially a heavy gun can never see what execution is done during the first second or two ? He may hare his eye on the mark at the discharge, but somehow the report always throws his ocular apparatus out of gear. In a moment I espied one of the bears scrambling over an ice-cake. The other had already 76 I EFT ON LABRADOR. disappeared ; or else was killed, and had fallen down some fissure. " Man the boat ! " exclaimed Raed. " I'm anxious to see the result of that shot ! Bring up those muskets, Wade!" " Who goes on the bear-hunt, and who stays ? " cried the captain. " I'll stand by the vassel," said old Trull. " Guard and I will look out for tilings on board." "Den I'll take his place, sar !" exclaimed Palmleaf, catching the enthusiasm of the thing. Wade appeared with the muskets. Five of them were already loaded. Cartridges were soon clapped into six more. Wade handed us each one, including Palm- leaf. " See that you don't shoot any of us with it, you lubber ! " he said. " Neber fear, sar," replied the negro with a grin. " I'se called a berry good shot at Petersburg, sar. Fit there, sar, on the Linkum side." "You did?" "Yes, sar. Called a berry sure shot, sar." Kit and Raed began to laugh. " Come, tumble in, boys ! " shouted the captain, who didn't see the point quite so clearly as we did. We got into the boat, eleven of us ; about as many as could find room. Hobbs and Bonney lay back at the oars. Kit steered us up to the low ledges of the small island on the west side of the ice-packed arm, where the bears had ben seen. We landed, and pulled the boat up after us. No danger from the tide at this time of LEFT ON LABRADOR. 77 day. The captain and Kaed led off, climbing over the rocks, and following along the jam of ice, which was piled considerably higher than the shore of the arm. Palinleaf, jolly as a darky need be, kept close behind them. The rest followed as best they might, clamber- ing from ledge to ledge. Wade and I brought up the rear. " Only look at that nigger ! " muttered my kinsman of Southern blood. " Impudent dog ! I would like to crack his head with the but of this musket ! Hear how he wagged his tongue, to me ?" " Well, you called him a lubber." "What of that?" " What of that ? Why, you must expect him to talk back : that's all. He's a free man, now, you know." " The more's the pity ! " I don't see it." "I'd like to have the handling of that nigger a while ! " "No doubt. But you might just as well get over those longings first as last," I said ; for I was beginning to get sick of his foolish spirit. " You had better forget the war, bury your old-time prejudices, and start new in the world, resolved to live and let live ; to be a good fellow, and treat everybody alike and well. That's the way we do in the North, or ought to." Wade said not a word. I rather pity the fellow. He has got some mighty hard, painful lessons to learn before he will be able to start right in life. Kaed and the captain had stopped. " They were right opposite here, over among the ice," 78 LKFT ON LABRADOR. Raed was saying." "I marked the spot by that high cake sticking up above the rest." "We need scaling-ladders to get up among it," laughed Kit. "Talk of impenetrable jungles! here is a jui.'gle of ice !" Imagine, reader, a thousand ice-cakes from six to thirty feet square, and of every grade of thickness, piled Bi'dewise, edgewise, slantwise, crosswise, and flatwise on top of that, and you .may, perhaps, gain some idea of the vast jam which filled the arm and lay heaped up twenty and thirty feet above us. For a moment we were at a loss how to surmount it ; then all began look- ng along for some available cranny or rift which might >ffer a foothold. " Here's a breach ! " Weyinouth shouted. He had gone along a dozen rods farther. We fol- lowed to see him mounting by the jagged edge of a vast cake five or six feet thick which projected out over the ledges. Kit followed ; and they stood at the top, stretching down helping hands. In five minutes we were all up, standing, clinging, and balancing on the glassy edges of ice, and hopping and leaping from cake to cake. Cracks, crevices, and jagged holes opened ten, fifteen, and, twenty feet sheer down all about us. A single misstep would send us head-foremost into them. "I say," exclaimed Capt. Hazard, barely saving himself from a tumble, "this is a devil of a funny place for a bear-hunt ! No chance for rapid retreats ! It will be fight bear, or die ! " The place where the bears had stood when old Trull had fired was back fifteen or twenty rods to the right LEFT ON LABRADOR. 79 We worked off in that direction, getting occasional glimpses of the water down in the deep holes, and stopping once to pull Corliss out of a wedge-shaped crevice into which lie had slipped. Arriving on a big broad cake, which, for a wonder, lay flat side up, we paused to reconnoitre. " Don't see any thing of 'em," said the captain. " Gone, I'll bet my musket ! " said Kit disappointedly. " More'n a league away by this time, I'll warrant you." " Doubt if the old man touched 'ern ! " said Hobbs. "Guess he suspected as much ! " laughed the captain. "Perhaps that was why he wouldn't come." " But we haven't half searched yet ! " exclaimed Wade, pushing out along the edge of a tilted-up frag- ment, and jumping across to another. As he jumped the ticklish cake tipped, slid back, and toppled over into a great chasm to the right with a tremendous crash and spattering, for there was water at the bottom, Wade barely saving himself. Almost at the same instant, I thought I heard a low growl not far off. " Hark ! " exclaimed Kit. " Wasn't that the bear ? " " Sounded like one ! " muttered the captain. " Down among the ice ! " " May be wounded down there," said Kit. " Crawled in under the ice." " Spread out round here, boys," cried the captain, " and peep sharp into the holes ! " I knew we were near where the bullets from the howitzer had hit ; for I saw several of them lying down in the cracks, flattened by stu'king against the ice : and. 80 LEFT ON LABRADOR. a few rods farther on, Weymouth and I came to a largo irregular hole sixteen or seventeen feet deep, along the bottom of which we saw the bones of some fish. This is the very place where they were when we first saw them," said* Weymouth. "Ten to one they're crawled into some of those big cracks." We pitched down a loose junk of ice, and again heard a growl : though just where it issued from was hard telling ; for the broad faces of the cakes, set at all angles, echoed the sound in a most bewildering manner. Kit and the captain came along ; and we rolled down another fragment. Another growl. " He's in behind this great cake that sets upright against the side of the hole ! " exclaimed Weymouth. "Think so? "said Kid. "Then let's tip this large piece off on to it. May scare him out." We managed to turn it over the edge ; when it fell down smash upon the cake below, splitting it in two. Instantly the bear, a great shaggy, white fellow, sprang out, and ran round at the bottom of the hole, growling, and trying to scratch up the sides. He had several bloody streaks on him Kit took a rapid aim, and fired a bullet into his fore-shoulder; which only made him growl the louder, however. Then the captain gave him a shot in the head ; at which the creature tumbled down, and kicked his last very quietly. But meanwhile we had heard a great uproar and shouting off to the left. "They've started the other, I guess !" exclaimed Kit. Come on ! " Just then a shot waa fired, followed by a noise of LEFT ON LABRADOR. 81 falling ice-cakes. We could see a head bob up oc- casionally, and made for the melee as fast as we could hop. The jam in this direction was not so high. The ice-cakes lay flatter, and were less heaped one above the other. Cries of " There he is ! there he goes ! " burst out on a sudden ; then another musket-shot. Leaping on, we soon caught sight of the chase. The bear was jumping from cake to cake. Raed, Corliss, and Hobbs were following after him at a reckless pace ; Bonney was trying to cut him off on the right ; while Wade and Donovan, with Palmleaf a few rods behind them, were heading him on the left. Such a shouting and hallooing! They were all mad with excitement. We, who had killed our bear, kept after them as fast as ^ve could run, but couldn't begin to catch up. Bang ! Somebody fired at him then. 'Twas Hobbs. "Cut him off!" " Head him ! " was the cry. "He's hit!" " Head him off there ! " Wade and Donovan were actually outstripping the bear, and getting ahead ; seeing which, the frightened, maddened beast tacked sharp to the left to escape behind them on that side, going straight for Palmleaf, who was now considerably behind Wade and Don. Instant- ly a yell arose from all hands. "Lookout, Palmleaf!" "Shoot him, Palmleaf!" ' Let him have it ! " "Aim low!" 6 82 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " Now's your time ! " The negro, who had been running hard, stopped short, and, seeing the bear bounding toward him, made a feint to raise his musket, when it went off, either from accident or terror, in the air. We heard the bullet zip fifty feet overhead. The bear gave a vicious growl, and made directly at him. "He'll have the darky!" "He'll have you, Palmleaf ! " "Run, fool!" " Run, you black son ! " Palmleaf turned to run ; but, seeing a high rand of ice sticking up a few yards to his left, he leaped for it, and, jumping up, caiight his hands at the top, and tried to draw himself up on to it. The bear was within six feet of him, snarling like a fury. Bang ! Bang ! Bang ! Raed and Corliss and Bonney had fired within twenty yards. But the bear reared, and struck with his fore- paws at the darky's legs, stripping his trousers clean off the firs 4 pull. Such a howl as came from his terrified throat ! Crack ! That was a better shot. The bear turned, or set out to, but fell down in a heap, then scrambled up, but im- mediately tumbled over again, and lay kicking. By this time we had all got near. The negro, scared nearly into fits, still hung on to the edge of the ice. looking as if " spread-eagled " to it. ' RUN, YOU BLACK SON !" LEFT ON LABRADOR. S3 "Come, sir," said Wade. "Better get down and put on your trousers, what there is left of them." The darky turned an agonized, appealing visage ovei his shoulder, but, seeing only friends instead of bears, let go his hold, and dropped to his feet. ''That's what you call a 'sure shot/ is it," sneered Wade, " that one you fired at the bear ? Guess you didn't hurt us much at Petersburg." " He need to be pretty thankful that somebody fired a sure shot about the time the bear was paying his compliments to him," laughed the captain. " Yes : who fired that last shot ? " I asked of Dono- van, who stood near. "Wade did." We had to send back to the schooner for the butcher- knives, and also for a line to hoist the bear we had first killed out of the hole. The bears were skinned: we wanted to save their hides for trophies. As nearly as we could make out, they had been both wounded by the bullets from the howitzer, one of them the one killed first pretty severely. They did not, however, appear to me, in this our first encounter with them, to be nearly so fierce nor so formidable as I had expected, from accounts I had read. Hobbs cut out a piece of the haunch for steaks. Pal mleaf afterwards cooked it : but we didn't much rel- ish it, save Guard ; and he ate the most of it. CHAPTER VI. The Middle Savage Isles. Glimpse of an Esquimau Canoe. Firing at a Bear with the Cannon-Eifle. A Strange Sound. The Esquimaux. Their Kayaks. They come on board. An Unintelligible Tongue. "Chymo." DURING the night following our bear-hunt a storm came on, wind, rain, and snow, as before, and continued all the next day. The tremendous tides, how- ever, effectually prevented any thing like dulness from tl creeping over our spirits ; " since we were sure of a sen- sation at least twice in twenty-four hours. But during the next night it cleared up, with the wind north ; and, quite early on the morning of the llth of July, we dropped out of " Hazard's Bay," and stood away up the straits. At one o'clock we sighted another group of moun- tainous isles, the same figured on the chart as the " Middle Savage Isles ; " and by five o'clock we were passing the easternmost a couple of miles to the south- ward. Between it and the next island, which lay a lit- tle back to the north, there was a sort of bay filled with floating ice. R,aed was leaning on the bulwarks with his glass, scanning the islands as we bowled along under a full spread of canvas. Suddenly he turned, and called to Kit. 84 LEFT ON LABRADOR. 85 "Get your glass," he said. "Or never mind: take mine. Xow look right up there between those islands, What do you see ? " " Seals/' replied Kit slowly, with the glass to his eye. " Any quantity of seals on the ice there ; and there's something larger scooting along. That's a narwhal: no, 'tain't, either. By jolly ! see the seals flop off into the water as it shoots along ! afraid of it. There ! some- thing flashed then in the sun ! Raed, I believe that's a kayak, an Esquimau canoe ! An Esquimau catching seals ! " " That's what I thought." "Wash!" " Wade ! " " Get your glasses, and come here quick ! " " What's that about Esquimau ? " demanded Capt. Mazard, coming along from the binnacle. " An Esquimau kayak ! " said Raed. " That so ? " running after his glass. In a few moments we were all all who had glasses looking off at the wonderful object, to see which had been one of the pleasant hopes of our voyage ; and yet I am bound to say, that, in and of itself, it was no great of a sight, especially at a distance of two miles. But, con- sidered as an invention perfected through centuries by >ne of the most singular peoples of the Man family, it is, in connection with all their implements of use, well worth a study. Indeed, there is, to me at least, some- thing so inexpressibly quaint and bizarre about this race, as to render them an object well deserving of a visit. More s* rikingly even than the Hottentot or the Digger 86 LEFT ON LABRADOR. Indian of the Western sage deserts do they exhibit tho iron sway of climate and food over habits and character, as well as physical growth and development. The kayak moved about from point to point for soma minutes ; then shot up into the passage between the islets, and was lost from view. "Suppose he saw us, saw the schooner?" said Wade. " Should have thought he might," replied the captain. 'Must be a pretty conspicuous object out here in the sun, with all sail set." " He may have gone to give news of our arrival," said Baed ; " for I presume there are others whole families not far away. These people always live in small com- munities or villages, I understand." " This may be as good a chance to see them as we shall get," said Kit. " What say for shortening sail, or standing up nearer the islands, and laying to for the night?" " Just as you say, gentlemen," replied the captain. It was agreed to stand up within half a mile, and so cruise along leisurely ; thus giving them a chance to communicate with us if they desired. Tho helm was accordingly put round, and "The Curlew" headed for the second island. Half an hour took us up within a thousand yards of the ledges : the schooner was then hove to for an hour. " A few discharges from the howitzer might stir them up," suggested Wade. " We could do that ! " exclaimed Eaed. Powder was brought up, and the gun charged and LEFT ON LABRADOR. 87 fired. A thunderous echo came back from the rocky sidea of the islands. A second and a third shot were given at intervals of five minutes : hut we saw nothing more of the kayak; and, after waiting nearly an hour more, the schooner was headed around, and continued on her course *t about the same distance from the islands. A gun was fired every hour till midnight. We then turned in for a nap. From this time till four o'clock the next morning we passed three islands : so the sailors reported. The high mainland was distinctly visible four or five miles to the northward. At five o'clock we were off a small, low islet, scarcely more than a broad ledge, rising at no point more than ten feet above the sea. It was several miles from the island next above it, however, and girdled by a glittering ice-field, the remains of last winter's frost, not yet broken up. Altogether the islet and the ice- field about it was perhaps two or two miles and a half in diameter. On the west it was separated from the island below it a high, black dome of sienite by a narrow channel of a hundred and fifty yards. Hundreds of seals lay basking in the sun along the edges of the ice- field ; and, as we were watching them, we saw a bear swim across the channel and climb on to the ice-field. Land- ing, he gave his shaggy sides a shake ; then, making a short run, seized upon a seal, off which he was soon break- fasting. " We'll spoil his fun ! " exclaimed Kit. " Bring up one of those solid shots. Wade. We've got two bear- skins ; but we shall want one apiece. I propose to hare an overcoat next winter out of that fellow's hide." 88 LEFT ON LABRADOR. The howitzer was loaded with the six-poand iron ball. Kit undertook to do the shooting this time, ifho distance was, we judged, somewhere from three-fourtha of a mile to a mile. The rest of us got our glasses, and went hack toward the stern to watch the effect of the sliot. Of course it is hap-hazard work, firing at so small an object at so great a distance, with a cannon, from the deck of a vessel in motion. Nevertheless Kit made quite a show of elevating the gun and getting the range. Presently he touched off. The first we saw of the shot was its striking on the ice-field at a long distance short of the bear. The bits of ice flew up smartly, and the ball must have ricochetted ; for we saw the ice fly up again quite near the bear, and then at another point be- yond him. It probably went over him at no great height. The creature paused from his bloody feast, looked round, and then ran off a few rods, and stood sniffing for some moments, but soon came back to the seal. Whether it was the report, or the noise of the ball whirring over, which had startled him, was not very evident. " Not an overcoat ! " laughed Kaed. " It's my turn now," s*aid I, uncovering my smaller cannon. " I'll make the next bid for that overcoat." I put in a little less than half a gill of powder this time, and wrapped a thin patch round the ball to make it fit tightly. It was all we could do to drite it down, The gun was then capped and cocked. I moved the screw to elevate it about an inch, and, watching my chance as the schooner heaved, let drive. But the beai kept on eating There was a general laugh. " Didu't even notice you ! " cried Kit. " I can over- LEFT ON LABRADOR. 89 bid that ! " taking up the powder to reload the how- itzer. " Not before I bid again," said I. And at it we went to' see who would get loaded first to get the next shot. But, my gun being so much the smaller and more easily handled, I had my ball down before Kit had his powder-wad rammed. The rest stood clapping and cheering us. Hastily priming the tube, I whipped on a cap, then bedconed to old Trull. " Here," said I, " shoot that bear for me ! " The old salt chuckled, and had his eye to the piece immediately. I snatched up my glass. Kit paused to see the result. The old man pulled the trigger. There was a moment's hush, then a great " Hurrah ! " The bear had jumped up, and, whirling partly round, ran off across the ice-field roaring, we fancied ; for he had his mouth open, and snapping round to his flanks. He had been grazed, if nothing more. With the glass we could detect blood on his white coat. " He's hit ! " said I. " Let's bear up into the chan- nel: that'll stop him from getting back to the high islands. We can then hunt him at leisure on the ice- field. He won't care to swim clean up to the " "Hark!" exclaimed Raed suddenly. "What's that noise?" We all listened. It was a noise not greatly unlike the faint, distant cawiiig and hawing of a vast flock of crows as they sometimes congregate in autumn. "It's some sort of water-fowl clanging out there about the high islands,'' said I. 90 LEFT ON LABRADOR. Again it rose, borne on the wind, " Ta-yar-r-r ! ta-yar-r-r ! ta-yar-r-r ! " Had we been at home, I should have taken it for a distant mass-meeting cheering the result of the presidential electi<$n, or perhaps the presi- dential nomination at the convention. It had a pecu- liarly barbarous, reckless sound, which was not wholly unfamiliar. But up here in Hudson Strains we were at a loss how to account for it. " I believe it's the Huskies;" said the captain. " Take a good look all around with your glasses." We ran our eyes over the islands. They looked bare of any thing like an Esquimaux convention. Presently Kit uttered an exclamation. "Why, just turn your glass off to 'he main, beyond the islands ; right over the ice-field ; on that lofty brown headland that j uts out from the main ! There they are ! " There they were, sure enough, a grimy, bare-headed crowd, swinging their arms, and gesticulating wildly. It could not have been less than five miles ; but the faint " Ta-yar-r-r ! " still came to our ears. " Suppose they are calling to us ? " cried Raed. " Yes ; looks like that," replied the captain. " Heard the guns, you see," said Kit ; " those we fired at the bear." "Port the helm ! " ordered the captain. "We'll beat up through this channel to the north side of the ice- field." "Perhaps we had best not go up too near them at first," remarked Raed, "till we find out what sort of folks they are." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 91 " No : two miles will be near enough. They will come >>ff to us, as many of them as we shall want on board at one time, I dare say." The schoonor bore up through the channel, and wore along the ice-field on the north side at a distance of a few hundred yards from it. We saw the bear running off round to the south-east side to keep away from us ; though, as may readily be supposed, our attention was mainly directed to the strange people on the headland, whose discordant cries and shouts could now be plainly heard. We could see them running down to the shore ; and immediately a score of canoes shot out, and came paddling towards us. "You don't doubt that their coming off is from friendly motives, captain ? " Kit asked. "Oh, no!" "Still forty or fifty stout fellows might give us our hands full, if they were ill disposed," remarked Wade. " That's a fact," admitted the captain ; "though I don't believe they would attempt any thing of the sort." " Well, there is no harm in being well armed," said Raed. " Kit, you and Wash get up half a dozen of the muskets, and load them. Fix the bayonets on them too. Wade and I will load the howitzer and the mighty rifle. And, captain, I don't believe we had better have more than a dozen of them aboard at one time till we know them better." " That may be as well," replied Capt. Hazard. " It will be unpleasant having too many of them aboard at once, anyway. And, in order to have the deck under our thumb a little more, I am going to station two of 92 LEFT ON LABRADOR. the sailors with muskets, as a guard, near the man at the wheel, another amidships, and two more forward." Meanwhile the kayaks were approaching, a wholo school of them, shouting and racing with each other. Such a barbaric din ! The crowd on the shore added their distant shouts. " There's another thing we must look out for," re- marked the captain. " These folks are said to be a little thievish. It will be well enough to put loose small articles out of sight." Hastily perfecting our arrangements, we provided ourselves each with a musket, and were ready for our strange visitors. They came paddling up, one to a ca- noe. Their paddles had blades at each end, and were used on either side alternately, with a quefr windmill sort of movement. " Twenty-seven of them," said Kit. " Bareheaded, every mother's son of them ! " exclaimed Weymouth. " Only look at the long-haired mokes ! " laughed Donovan. "Why, they're black as Palmleaf!" cried Hobbs. "Oh, 110 ! not nearly so black," said Bonney. "Just a good square dirt-color." This last comparison was not far from correct. The Esquimaux are, as a matter of fact, considerably darker t;han the red Indians of the United States. They are not reddish : they are brown, to which grease and din- giness add not a little. On they came till within fifty yards ; when all drew up on a sudden, and sat regarding us in something like silence. Perhaps our bayonets, LEFT ON LABRADOR. 93 with the sunlight flashing on them, may have filled them with a momentary suspicion of danger. Seeing this, we waved our arms to them, beckoning them to approach. While examining the relics of a past age, the stone axes, arrow-heads, and maces, I have often pictured in fancy the barbarous habits, the wild visages, and harsh accents, of prehistoric races, races living away back at the time when men were just rising above the brute. In the wild semi-brutish shouts and gesticula- tions which followed our own gesture of friendliness I seemed to hear and see these wild fancies verified, verified in a manner I had not supposed it possible to be observed in this age. And yet here were primitive sav- ages apparently, not fifteen hundred miles in a direct course from our own enlightened city of Boston, where, as we honestly believe, we have the cream (some of it, at least) of the world's civilization. Reflect on this fact, ye who think the whole earth almost ready for the reign of scientific righteousness ! Such an unblessed discord! such a cry of pristine savagery ! They came darting up alongside, their great fat, flat, greasy faces, with their little sharp black eyes, looking up to us full of confidence, and twinkling with expectation of good bargains. During our voyage we had got out of our books quite a number of Esquimaux words with their English meanings ; but these fellows gabbled so fast, so shock- ingly indistinct, and ran every thing together so, that we could not gain the slightest idea of what they were say- ing, further than by the word " chymo" which, as we had previously learned, meant trade, or barter. But they 94 LEFT ON LABRADOR. had nothing with them to trade off to us, save theii kayaks, paddles, and harpoons. " But let's get a lot of them up here where we can see them," said "Wade. We now made signs for them to climb on deck ; and immediately half a dozen of them stood up, and, with a spring, caught hold of the rail, and came clambering up, leaving their canoes to float about at random. Five seven eleven thirteen came scratching over. " There, that'll do for one dose," said Raed. Kit and Wade stepped along, and thrust out their muskets to stop the stream. One little fellow, however, had got half up : so they let him nig in, making fourteen in all. Three or four more had tried to get up near the stern ; but Weymouth and Don, who were on duty there, rapped their knuckles gently, as a reminder to let go and drop back into their kayaks, which they did with- out grumbling. Indeed, they seemed singularly inoffen- sive ; and, come to get them on deck, they were " little fellows," not so tall as we boys even by a whole head. They were pretty thick and stout, however, and had remarkably large heads and faces. I do not think the tallest of them was much if any over five feet. Dono- van, who was about six feet, looked like a giant beside them. They stood huddle 1 together, looking just a little wistful at being cut off from their fellows, and casting fearful glances at Guard, who stood barking ex- citedly at them from the companion-way. Though used to dogs, they had very likely never seen a jet-black New- foundland before. Possibly they mistook him for some different animal. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 95 " What are we thinking of," exclaimed Raed, " with our guns and bayonets ! Why, these little chaps look the very embodiment of good nature ! Here they trust themselves among us without so much as a stick in thoir hands ; while we've got out all our deadly weapons ! Let's let the rest of them come up if they want to." Kit and Wade stood back, and beckoned to the others : whereat they all came climbing up, save one, who etaid, apparently, to look out for the empty kayaks which were floating about. They brought rather strong odors of smoke and greasy manginess ; but more good- natured faces I never saw. " My eye ! but aren't they flabby fat ! " exclaimed Hobbs. " That comes of drinking seal and whale oil," said Bonney. " Guess they don't sport combs much," said Donovan. " Look at those tousled heads ! Bet you, they're lousy as hens ! " " Talk to 'em, Raed," said Kit. " Say something. Ask 'em if they want to chymo." At the sound of this last word they turned their little sharp eyes brightly on Kit. '' Chymo ? " said Kaed interrogatively. Instantly they began to crowd round him, a dozen jabbering all at once. Faster even than before they ran on, amid which we could now and then distinguish words which sounded like oomiaksook, hennelay, cob loo-nak, ye-meck. These words, as we had read, meant big ship, woman, Englishman, water, respectively. But it was utterly impossible to make out in what connec- 96 LEFT ON LABRADOR. tion they were used. Despite our vocabulary, we were as much at a loss as ever. "Confound it !" Kit exclaimed. " Let's make signs. No use trying to talk with them." " We shall want one of those kayaks to carry home," remarked Raed. " Captain, will you please bring up a couple of those long bars of iron and three or four yards of red flannel ? We will see what can be done in the ",hymo line." Capt. Hazard soon appeared with the iron and the flannel ; at sight of which the exclamation of " Cliymo ! " and "Tyma! " (" Good ! ") were redoubled. Kaed then took the articles, and, going to the side, pointed down to one of the canoes, then to the iron bars, and said chymo. At that some of them said " Tyma" and others " Negga- mai," with a shake of their heads ; but when Eaed pointed to both the iron and the flannel, undoubling it as he did so, they all cried "Tyma!" and one of them (the owner of the kayak, as it proved) came forward to take the things. Raed gave them to him. A line with a slip- noose was then dropped over the nose of the kayak, and it was pulled on board. In plan it was much like our cedar." shells " used at regattas, a narrow skiff about twenty-three feet in length by eighteen inches in width. At the centre there was a small round hole just large enough for one to sit with his legs under the seal-skin deck, which was bound tightly to a hoop encircling the hole. Indeed, the whole outside of this singular craft was of seal-skins, sewed together and drawn tight as a drum-head over a frame composed mainly of the rib-bdnes of the walrus. The LEFT ON LABRADOR. 97 double-bladed paddle was tied to the kayak with a long thong ; as was also a harpoon, made of bones laid together, and wound over with a long thong of green seal-skin. The lance-blade at the point was of very white, fine ivory ; probably that of the walrus. Attached to the harpoon was a very long coil of line, made also of braided seal-skin, and wound about a short, upright peg behind the hoop. We supposed that the paddle and the harpoon went with the kayak. But the owner did not see it in that light. As soon as it had been hauled on deck, he proceeded to untie the thongs, much to the amusement of the captain. As \ve wished these articles to go together, nothing remained but to drive a new bargain for them. Raed, therefore, took one of our large jack-knives from his pocket, and, opening it, pointed to the paddle, and again said chynio. They all neyga-mai-ed, giving us to understand that it wouldn't be a fair trade ; in other words, that they couldn r t afford it : and the owner of the paddle kept re- peating the work karrack deprecatingly. " What in the world does karrack mean ? " Rainl asked, turning to us. Nobody knew. " Karrack ? " queried he. " Karrack, karrack ! " was the reply. " Karrack, karrack, karrack ! " they all cried, point- ing to the'paddle and also to the bulwarks. " They mean wood ! " exclaimed the captain. " Cor hss, bring up two or three of those four-foot sticks such as we are using for firewood." It was brought, and thrown down on deck. 98 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " Karrack, karrack r " they all exclaimed arid fell tc laughing in a most extraordinary way, mak..ng a noise which seemed to come from low down in their stomachs, and resembled the syllables heh-heh, or yeh-yeli, over and over and over. Raed pointed to the three sticks of wood, and then to the paddle, with another " chymo." That was tyma ; for they all nodded and heh-heh-ed again. " A trade," said the captain. " Now for the narpoon and line." These we got for a bar of iron and another stick of wood. It at first seemed rather singular that they should prize a stick of ordinary split wood so highly ; but it was easily accounted for when we came to reflect that this vast region is destitute of trees of any size. Wood was almost as eagerly sought for as iron. I have" no doubt that a very profitable trade might be made with a cargo of wood along these straits, exchanged for walrus-ivory, bear-skins, and seal-skins. They wore a sort of jacket, or round frock, of bear- skin, with a cap, or hood, fastened to the collar like the hood of a water-proof. It was tied with thongs in front, and came down to the thigh. Kit bought one of these for a jack-knife, for a curiosity, of course. Wade also purchased a pair of seal-skin moccasons, with legs to the knee, for a butcher-knife ; which gave us a chance to ob- serve that the owner wore socks of dog-skin, with the hair in. A pair of these were chymoed from another man for a stick of wood. Beneath their bear-skin frocks they wore a shirt of some thin skin, which the captain pronounced to be LEFT ON LABRADOR. 99 bladder-skin. of bears, perhaps. I got one of these shirts for a jack-knife. Wishing to have an entire out- fit, we bought a pair of breeches of the man of whom we had already purchased the boots, for a dozen spike- nails. These were of fox-skin, apparently, with the hair worn next the skin. I noticed that one man wore a small white bone or ivory trinket, seemingly carved to represent a child. Pointing to it, I held out a butch- er-knife, a good bargain, I fancied. Somewhat to my surprise, he negga-mai-ed with a very grave shake of his head. Two or three others who saw it shook their heads too. Wishing to test him, I brought up a bar of iron, and made another tender of both knife and iron. But he shook his head still more decidedly, and turned away as if to put a stop to further bantering on the sub- ject. We were at a loss to know whether it was a souvenir, the image of some dead child, or an object of religious reverence. Finally the captain pointed across the ice-field, where the bear was sitting crouched on the margin of it, and said, " Nen-ook" At that they all looked, and, espying him, gave vent to a series of cries and shouts. Six of them immediately dropped into their kayaks and set off after him. Reaching the ice, hey landed, and pulled the canoes on to it. Then, taking their harpoons, they divided into three parties of two each. One of these went straight across toward the bear ; the second followed round the edge of the field to the right, the third to the left. The bear must have been pretty severely wounded by our six-ounce bullet, I think; for he paid no attention to their approach til) 100 LEFT ON LABRADOR. ' they were within four or five rods, when he made a fee- ble attempt to get past them. They rushed up to him without the slightest hesitation, and despatched him in a twinkling. CHAPTER VII. The Husky Belles. We-ioe and Caubvick. "Abb," she said. All Promenade. Candy at a Discount. "Pillitay, pillitay!" Old Trull and the Husky Matron. Gorgeous Gifts. Adieu to the Arctic Beauties. x NONE of their women had come off with them ; and, while the party that had gone after the bear were busy skinning it, Raed brought up a roll of flannel, with half a dozen knives, and, holding them up, pointed off to the mainland, and said, " Henne-lay." Whereupon they fell to heh-heh-ing afresh, with cries of "Igloo, igloo!'' Kit pointed to our boat, hanging from the davits at the stern, and then off to the shore, to inquire whether we should send it for them ; but they shook their heads, and uried, " Oomiak, oomiakf" " Do they mean for us to take the schooner up there ? " asked the captain Kaed pointed to the deck, and then off to the shore, in- quiringly. No, that was not it ; though they still cried " Oomiak ! " pointing off to the shore. " Oomiak is a boat of their own, I guess," said Kit ; " different from the kayak. They called ' The Curlew ' oomiak-sook, you know." 101 102 LEFT ON LABRADOR. "Tell them to bring some of their children along too," said Wade. "Well, what's the word for child?" Eaed inquired. We none of us knew. " Try pappoose" suggested the captain. " Pappoose" said Kaed, pronouncing it distinctly, and pointing off as before. " Henne-lay pappoose" But they only looked blank. Pappoose was evidently a new word for them. We then resorted to various ex- pedients, such as holding our hands knee-high and hip- high ; but the requisite gleim of intelligence could not be inspired. So, with another repetition of the word henne- lay, we started off a delegation of eight or nine after the female portion of the settlement. While they were gone, the six who had gone to slaugh- ter the bear came back, bringing the hide and a consid- erable quantity of the meat. Bits were distributed among the crowd, and eaten raw and reeking as if a deli- cacy. We chymoed the bear-skin from them for a bar of iron. In about an hour a great ta-yar-r-r-ing from the shoreward bespoke the embarkation of the ladies; and, with our glasses, we could make out a large boat coming off, surrounded by kayaJts. " That's the oomiak" said Kit. " Looks like quite a barge." "Dor.'t lose your hearts now," laughed the captain. " Should hate to have an elopement from my ship here." " 1 think Wade is in the most dr.nger," said Raed. " He's very susceptible to Northern beauties. We must l not at present much choked with ice. It was safe, to all appearance. We wanted rest. Turning out at three and half-past three in the morning, and not getting to bunk till eleven and twelve, made an unconscionable long day. Once asleep, I don't thir.k one of us boys waked or turned over till the cap- tain stirred us up to breakfast. " Six o'clock, boys ! " cried he. " Sun's been up these four hours ! " " Don't talk about the sun in this latitude," yawned Raed. " I can sit up with him at Boston ; but he's too much for me here." 114 LEFT OJ LABRADOR. 115 While we were at breakfast, Weymouth came down to report a k\j,yak coming off. " Shall we let him c jme aboard, sir ? " " Oh, yes ! " said tlie captain. " Let's have him down to breakfast with us for the nonce ! " cried Kit. " Here, Palmleaf, set an extra plate, and bring another cup of coffee." " And see that you keep out of sight," laughed the captain: "the Huskies don't much like the looks of you." " I tink I'se look as well as dey do, sar ! " exclaimed the indignant cook. " So do I, Palmleaf," said Baed ; " but then opinions differ, you know. These Esquimaux are nothing but savages." "Dey're berry ill-mannered fellars, sar, to make do best of dem. I wouldn't hev 'em roun', sar, stinkin' up de ship." " I don't see that they smell much worse than a pack of niggers," remarked Wade provokingly ; at which the darky went back to the galley muttering. " Wade, some of these big negroes will pop you over ont of these days," said Kit. " Well, I expect it ; and who'll be to blame for that ? We had them under good control : you marched your hired Canadians down among us, and set them " free," as you say ; which means that you've turned loose a class of beings in no way fit to be free. The idea of letting those ignorant niggers vote! why, they are no more tit to have a voice in the making of the laws than so many hogs ! You have done us a great wrong in setting HO LEFT ON LABRADOR. them free : you've turned loose among us a horde of the most indolent, insolent, lustful beasts that ever made a hell of earth. You can't look for social harmony at the South ! Why, we are obliged to go armed to protect our lives ! No lady is safe to walk half a mile unat- tended. I state a fact when I say that my mother and my sisters do not dare to walk about our plantation even, for fear of those brutish negroes." "I think you take a rather one-sided view, Wade," said Raed. " It's the only side I can see." " Perhaps ; but there is another side, nevertheless." Here a tramping on the stairs was heard, and Wey- mouth came down, followed by a large Esquimau. " He's been trying to make out to us that he's the chief, boss, sachem, or whatever they call it, of the crowd that was aboard yesterday," said Weymouth. " What does he want ? " the captain asked. " Wants to chymo." Kaed made signs for him to sit down in the chair at the table and eat with us ; which, after some hesitation, he did rather awkwardly, and with a great knocking of his feet against the chairs. He had on a gorgeous bear- skin jacket, with the hood drawn over his head His face was large ; his nose small, and nearly lost between the fat billows of his cheeks ; his eyes were much drawn up at the corners, and very far apart ; and his mouth, a very wide one, was fringed about with stiff, straggling black bristles. The cast of his countenance was decidedly repul- sive. Kit made signs for bin- to drink his coffee ; but ho merely eyed it suspiciously. I then helped him to a LEFT ON LABRADOR. 117 heavy spoonful of mashed potatoes. He looked at it a while ; then, seeing us eating of it, plunged in his fin- gers, and, taking up a wad, thrust it into his mouth, but immediately spat it out, with a broad laugh, all over his plate and over the other dishes, and kept spitting at random. "De nasty dog!" ejaculated Palmleaf, rushing for- ward from the galley : " spit all ober de clean plates ! " The savage turned his eye upon the black, and, with a horrible shout, sprang up from his chair, nearly upset- ting the table-shelf, and made a bolt for the stairway. We. called to him, and followed as quickly as we could: but, before we were fairly on deck, he was over into his kayak, plying his paddle as if for dear life; and the more we called, the faster he dug to it. Suddenly, as we were looking after him and laughing, the heavy report of cannon sounded from the southward. Looking around, we saw a large ship coming to below the islands, at a distance of about three miles. A thrill of apprehension stole over us. Without a word, we went for our glasses. It was a large, stanch-looking ship, well manned, from the appearance of her deck. As we were looking, the English flag went up. We had expected as much. " It's one of the Hudson-bay Company's ships," re- marked Kaed. " Of course," said Kit. " Not likely to be any thing else," said the captain. " I suppose you're aware that those fellows may take a notion to have us accompany them to London," re- marked Raed. 118 LKFT ON LABRAPOU. "If they can catch us," Kit added. Persons caught trading with the natives within the limits of the Hudson-bay Company's chartered territory aie liable to be seized, and carried to London for trial," continued Eaed. " It's best to keep that point well in view. Nobody would suppose that, in this age, the old beef-heads would have the cheek to try to enforce such a right against Americans, citizens of the United States, who ought to have the inside track of every thing 011 this continent. Still they may." " It will depend somewhat on the captain of the vessel what sort of a man he is," said Kit. " He may be one of the high and mighty sort, full of overgrown notions of the company's authority." Another jet of white smoke puffed out from the side of the ship, followed in a few seconds by another dull lany. 11 We'll stand by our colors in any case," remarked Capt. Mazard, attaching our flag to the signal halliards. Raed and Kit ran to hoist it. Up it went to the peak of the bright-yellow mast, the bonny bright stars and stripes. " All hands weigh anchor ! " ordered Capt. Mazard. " Load the howitzer ! " cried Kit. " Let's answer their gun in coin ! " While we were loading, the schooner was brought ro ind. Wade must have got in a pretty heavy charge ; for the report was a stunner. " Load again," said Kit; " and put in a ball this time. Let's load the rifle too." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 1]9 The captain turned and regarded us doubtfully, then looked off toward the ship. "The Curlew" was driving lazily forward, and, crossing the channel between the island under which we had been lying and the ice-field, passed slowly along the latter at a distance of a hundred and fifty or two hundred yards. We thus had the ire- island between us and the possibly hostile ship. With our glasses we now watched her movements attentively. A number of officers were on the quarter-deck. " You don't call that a ship-of-war ? " Wade said at length. " Oh, no ! " replied the captain ; " though it is prob- ably an armed ship. All the company's ships go armed, I've heard." " There ! " exclaimed Kit. " They're letting down a boat ! " " That's so ! " cried Wade, " They're going to pay us a visit sure ! " " They probably don't want to trust their heavy-laden ship up here among the islands," said the captain. " It's their long-boat, I think," said Kit " One, two, three, four, five ! why, there are not less than fifteen or twenty men in it ! And see there f weapons ! " As the boat pulled away from the side, the sun flashed brightly from a dozen gleaming blades. " Cutlasses ! ' r exclaimed Raed, turning a little pale. I am ready to confess, that, for a moment, I felt as weak as a rag. The vengeful gleam of the light on hostile steel is apt, I think, to give one such a feeling the first time he sees it. The captain stood leaning on the rail, with the glas> to his eye, evidently at his wits' 120 LEFT ON LABRADOR. end, and in no little trepidation. Very likely at that moment he wished our expedition had gone to Jeri- cho before he had undertaken it. Raed, I think, was the first to rally his courage. I presume he had thought more on the subject previously than the rest of us had done. The sudden appearance of the ship had therefore taken him less by surprise than it did us. " It looks as if they were going to board us if we let them," he said quietly. " That's the way it looks ; isn't it, captain ? " "I should say that it did decidedly," Capt. Hazard replied. "Boys I" exclaimed Eaed, looking round to us, and to the sailors, who had gathered about us in some anxiety, "boys ! if we let those fellows yonder board us, in an hour we shall all be close prisoners, in irons perhaps, and down in the hold of that ship. We shall be carried out to Fort York, kept there a month in a dungeon likely as any way, then sent to England to be tried for daring to sail into Hudson Bay and trade with the Esquimaux ! What say, boys ? shall we let them come aboard and take us ? " "No, sir!" cried Kit. " Not much ! " exclaimed Donovan. " We'll fight first ! " Capt. Hazard," continued Eaed, " I'm really sorry to have been the means of placing you in such a predica- ment. 'The Curlew' will undoubtedly be condemned if seized. They would clap a prize-crew into her the first thing, and start her for England. But there's no need of giving her up to them. That's not a ship-of- LEFT ON LABRADOR. 121 war. We've got arms, and can fight as well as they. We can boat off that boat, I'll be bound to say : and as for their ship, I don't believe they'll care to take her up here between the islands ; and if they do, why, we can sail away from them. But, for my own part, I had rather fight, and take an even" chance of being killed, than be taken prisoner, and spend five months below decks." " Fight it is, then ! " exclaimed the captain doggedly. By this time the boat was pulling up the channel to the north of the ice-field, within a mile of us. " We might crowd sail, and stand away to the north of tbe islands here," I argued. "Yes; but we don't know how this roadstead ends farther on," replied Raed. " It may be choked up with ice or small islets," said Kit. "In that case we should run into a trap, where they would only have to follow us to be sure of us. We might abandon the schooner, and get ashore ; but that would be nearly as bad as being taken prisoner on this coast." "Here's clear sailing round this ice-field," remarked the captain. " My plan is to keep their ship on the op- posite of it from us. If they give chase, we'll sail round it." "But how about their boat? " demanded Wade. "We must beat it off!" exclaimed the captain deter- minedly. " Then we've not a moment to lose ! " cried Raed. " Here, Donovan ! help me move the howitzer to the stern. Kit, you and Wash and Wade get up the mus- kets and load them. Bring up the cartridges, and get caps and every thing ready." 122 LEFT ON LABRADOR. The howitzer went rattling into the stern, and was pointed out over the taffrail. The big rifle followed it. To the approaching boat their muzzles must have looked a trifle grim, I fancy. Matches and splints were got; ready, as well as wads and balls. The muskets were charged, and the bayonets fixed. The schooner was kept moving gradually along at about the same distance from the ice. Bonney was stationed at the wheel, and Corliss at the sheets. Old Trull stood by the howitzer. The rest of us took each a musket, and formed in line along the after-bulwarks. Palmleaf, who in the midst of these martial preparations had been enjoying a pleasant after- breakfast snooze, was now called, and bade to stand by Corliss at the sheets. His astonishment at the sight which the deck presented to his lately-awakened optics was very great ; the greater, that no one would take the trouble to answer his anxious questions. The boat had now come up to within a quarter of a mile. With cutlasses flashing, and oars dipping all to- gether, they came closing in with a long, even stroke. " We don't want them much within a hundred yards of us," said Capt. Hazard in a low tone. " I'll hail them," replied Raed, taking the speaking- trumpet, which the captain had brought along. The crisis was close at hand. We clutched the stocks of our rifles, and stood ready. There was, I am sure, no blenching nor flinching from the encounter which seemed imminent. We could see the faces of the men in the boat, the red face of the officer in the stern. The men were armed with carbines and broad sabres. They had come within easy hail. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 123 *' Present arms ! " commanded Capt. Hazard in clear tones. Eight of us, with our rifles, stood fast. " Repel boarders ! " Instantly we dropped on one knee, and brought our pieces to bear over the rail, the bayonets flashing as brightly as their own. " Boat ahoy ! " shouted Raed through the trumpet. " Ahoy yourself ! " roared the red-faced man in the stern. " What ship is that, anyway ? " This was rather insulting talk : nevertheless, Raed answered civilly and promptly, " The schooner-yacht ' Curlew ' of Portland." "Where bound? What are you doing here?" " Bound on a cruise into Hudson Bay ! " responded Raed coolly; "for scientific purposes," he added. " Scientific devils ! " blustered the officer. " You can't fool us so ! You're in here on a trading-voyage. We saw a kayak go off from you not an hour ago." Not caring to bandy words, Raed made no reply ; and we knelt there, with our muskets covering them, in silence. They had stopped rowing, and were falling be- hind a little; for "The Curlew" ploughed leisurely on. " Why don't you heave to ? " shouted the irate com- mander of the boat. " I must look at your papers ! Heave to while I come alongside ! " " You can't bring that armed boat alongside of this dchooner !" replied Raed. "No objections to your ex- amining our papers ; but we're not green enough to let you bring an armed crew aboard of us." "Then *re shall come without letting! Give way there ! " 124 LEFT ON LABRADOR. But his men hesitated. The sight of our muskets, aiid old Trull holding a blazing splinter over the howit- zer, was a little toe much even for the sturdy pluck of English sailors. " Bring that boat another length nearer," shouted Raed slow and distinctly, " and we shall open fire on you ! " "The devil you will!" " Yes, we will ! " At that we all cocked our muskets. The sharp click- ing was, no doubt, distinctly audible in the boat. The officer thundered out a torrent of oaths and abuse ; to all of which Raed made no reply. They did not advance, however. We meant business ; and I guess they thought so. Our stubborn silence was not misconstrued. " How do I know that you're not a set of pirates ? " roared the Englishman. " You look like it ! But wait till I get back to ' The Rosamond,' and I'll knock some of the impudence out of you, you young filibusters ! " And with a parting malediction, which showed wonderful ingenuity in blasphemy, he growled out an order to back water ; when the boat was turned, and headed for the ship. " Give 'em three cheers ! " said Kit. Whereupon we jumped up, gave three and a big groan ; at which the red face in the stern turned, and stai'ed long and evilly at us. " No wonder he's mad ! " exclaimed Raed. " Had to row clean round this ice-field, and now has got to row back for his pains ! Though the was going to scare us just about into fits. Got rather disagreeably disap- pointed." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 125 " He was pretty well set up, I take it," remarked the captain. " Had probably taken a drop before coming off. His men knew it. When he gave the order to ' give way,' they hung back : didn't care about it." "They knew better," said Donovan. "We could have knocked every one of them 011 the head before they could have got up the side. It ain't as if ' The Curlew' was loaded down, and lay low in the water. li's about as much as a man can do to get from a boat up over the bulwarks. They might have hit some of us with their carbines ; but they couldn't have boarded us, and they knew it." " You noticed what he said about knocking the impu- 'dence out of us ? " said Wade. " That means that we shall hear a noise and have cannon-shot whistling about our ears, I suppose." " Shouldn't wonder," said Kit. " Have to work to hurt us much, I reckon," remarked the captaki. " The distance across the ice-island here can't be much under two miles and a half." " Still, if they've got a rifled Whitworth or an Arm- strong, they may send some shots pretty near us," said Wade. " The English used to kindly send you Southern fel- lows a few Armstrongs occasionally, I have heard," said Raed. "Yes, they did, just by way of testing Lincoln's blockade. Very good guns they were too. We ought to have had more c f them. I tell you, if they have a good twenty-four-pound Armstrong rifle, and a gunner that knows any thing, they may give us a job of carpenter- work to stop the holes." 126 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " We might increase the distance another quarter of a mile," remarked Kit, " by standing off from the ice and making the circle a little larger." "We'll do so," said the captain. "Port the helm, Bonney ! " During the next half-hour the schooner veered off two or three cables' lengths. We watched the boat pulling back to the ship. It was nearly an hour getting around the ice-island. Finally it ran in alongside, and was taken up. With our glasses we could see that there was a good deal of running and hurrying about the deck. "Some tall swearing going on there ! " laughed Kit. " Now look out for your heads ! " said Raed. . " They are pointing a gun ! I can see the muzzle of it! It has an ugly look ! " Some five minutes more passed, when puff came a little cloud of smoke. We held our breaths. It give? a fellow a queer sensation to know that a deadly projec- tile is coming for him. It might have been four sec- onds, though it seemed longer, when we saw the ice fiy up rapidly in three or four places half a mile from the schooner as the ball came skipping along, and, bounding off the edge of the ice-field, plunged into the sea with a sullen sudge, throwing up a white fountain ten or a dozen feet high, which fell splashing back. We all felt immensely- relieved. " That didn't come within three hundred yards of us," said Kit. "They'll give her more elevation next time," said Wade. "I don't believe that was an Armstrong slug, though : it acted too sort of lazy." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 127 " Look out, now ! " exclaimed Raed. " They are going to give us another ! " Puff one two three four ! The hall struck near the edge of the ice-field, rose with a mighty bound twenty or thirty feet, and, describing a fine curve, struck spat upon the water; and again rose, to plunge heavily down into the ocean two hundred feet off the port quarter. " That was better," said Raed. " They are creeping up to us ! The next one may come aboard ! " " But that's nothing more than an ordinary old twenty-four-pounder," said Wade. "Bet they haven't got a rifled gun. Lucky for us ! " "I wish we had a good Dahlgren fifty-pound rifle ! r exclaimed Kit : " we would just make them get out of that quick ! Wouldn't it be fun to chase them off through the straits here, with our big gun barking at their heels ! " " There they go again ! " shouted the captain. " Look out!" We caught a momentary glimpse of the shot high in air, and held our breaths again as it came whirling down with a quick thud into the sea a few hundred feet astern, and a little beyond us. "Gracious!" cried Kit. "If that had struck on the deck, it would have gone down, clean down through, I do believe ! " "Not so bad as that, I guess," said the captain. "That heap of sand-ballast in the hold would stop it, J reckon." "THukso?" 128 LtFT ON LABRADOR. "Oh, yes!" There was real comfort in that thought. It was therefore with diminished apprehension that we saw n fourth shot come roaring down a cable's length forward, and heyond the bows, and, a few seconds after, heard the dull boom following the shot. The report was always two or three seconds behind the ball. They fired three more of the "high ones," as Kit called them. None of these came any nearer than the fourth had done. Then they tried another at a less elevation, which struck on the ice-field, and came skip- ping along as the first had done ; but it fell short. "Old Red-face will have to give it up, I guess," said Kit. " He wants to hit us awfully, though ! If he hadn't a loaded ship, bet you, we should see him coming up the channel between the islands there, swearing like a piper." " In that case we would just 'bout ship, and lead him on a chase round this ice-island till he got sick of it," remarked the captain. " ' The Curlew ' can give him points, and outsail that great hulk anywhere." "He's euchred, and may as well go about his busi- ness," laughed Weymouth. " And that's just what he's concluding to do, I guess," eaid Donovan, who had borrowed my glass for a mo- ment. " The ship's going round to the wind." " Yes, there she goes ! " exclaimed Wade. " Possibly they may bear up through the channel to the west of the ice-island," said Raed. "Hope he will, if he wants to," remarked Capt. Hazard. " Nothing would suit me better than to race with him." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 129 Ii: fifteen or twenty minutes the ship was off the entrance of the channel ; but she held on her course, and had soon passed it. " Now that old fellow feels bad ! " laughed Kit. " How eavage he will be for the next twenty-four hours ! I pity the sailors ! He will have two or three of them ' spread- eagled ' by sunset to pay for this, the old wretch ! He looked just like that sort of a man." "I wonder what our Husky friends thought of this little bombardment ! " exclaimed Wade, looking off to- ward the mainland. "Don't see any thing of them." " Presume we sha'n't get that old ' sachem ' that saw Palmleaf to visit us again in a hurry," said Kit. We watched the ship going off to the south-west for several hours, till she gradually sank from view. " Well, captain," said Raed, " you are not going to let this adventure frighten you, I hope." " Oh, no ! I guess we can take care of ourselves. Only, in future, I think we had better keep a sharper lookout, not to let another ship come up within three miles without our knowing it." It was now after four o'clock, P.M. Not caring to follow too closely after the company's ship, we beat back to our anchorage of the previous evening, and anchored for the night. ' Saw nothing more of the Esquimaux ; and, early tho next morning, sailed out into the 'straits, and continued on during the whole day, keeping the mountains of the mainland to the northward well in sight at a distance of eight or ten miles, and occasionally sighting high is- lands to the south of the straits. 9 130 LEFT ON LABRADOR. By five o'clock, afternoon, we were off a third group of islands on the north side, known as the "Uppei Savage Isles." During the evening and night \ve passed them a few miles to K the south, a score of black, craggy islets. Even the bright light of the wan- ing sun could not enliven their utter desolation. Drear, oh, how drear ! with their thunder-battered peaks rising abruptly from the ocean, casting long black shadows to the eastward. Many of them were mere tide-washed ledges, environed by ice-fields. About nine o'clock, evening, the ice-patches began to thicken ahead. By ten we were battering heavily among it, with considerable danger of staving in the bows. The foresail was accordingly taken in, and double reefs put in the mainsail. The weather had changed, with heavy lowering clouds and a rapidly -falling thermometer. Nevertheless we boys turned in, and went to sleep. Experience was beginning to teach us to sleep when we could. The heavy rumble of thunder roused us. Bright, sudden flashes gleamed through the bull's-eyes. The motion of the schooner had changed. "What's up, I wonder?" asked Kit, sitting up on the side of his mattress. Another heavy thunder-peal burst, rattling oveihead. Hastily putting on our coats and caps, we went on deck, where a scene of such wild and terrible grandeur pre- sented itself, that I speak of it, even at this lapse of time, with a shudder; knowing, too, that I can give no adequate idea of it in words. I will not say that I am not glad to have witnessed it ; but I should not want to see it again. To the lovers of the awfully sublime, it LEFT ON LABRADOR. 131 would have been worth a journey around the earth. It seemed as if all the vast antagonistic forces of Natitre had been suddenly confronted with each other. The schooner had been hove to in the lee of an ice-field en- girdling one of the smaller islets, with all sail taken in save the jib. Weymouth was at the wheel; the cap- tain stood near him ; Hobbs and Donovan were in the bow; Bonney stood by the jib-halliards. On the port side the ice-field showed like a pavement of alabaster on a sea of ink, contrasting wildly with the black, rolling clouds, which, like the folds of a huge shroud, draped the heavens in darkness. On the starboard, the heaving waters, black as night, were covered with pure white ice- cakes, striking and battering together with heavy grind- ings. The lightnings played against the inky clouds, forked, zigzag, and dazzling to the eye. The thunder- echoes, unmuffled by vegetation, were reverberated from bare granitic mountains and naked ice-fields with a hol- low rattle that deafened and appalled us ; and, in the intervals of thunder, the hoarse bark of bears, and their affrighted growlings, were borne to our ears with savage distinctness. Mingled-with these noises came the screams and cries of scores x>f sea-birds, wheeling and darting about. It was half-past two, morning. " What a fearfully grand scene' ! " exclaimed Wade. And I recollect that we all laughed in his face, the words seemed so utterly inadequate to express what, by common consent, was accorded unutterable. An hour later, the blackness of the heavens had rolled away to the westward, a fog began to rise, and morning ligl.fc effaced the awful panorama of night. 132 LEFT ON LAW; A DOR. By six o'clock the fog was so dense that nothing could be seen a half cable's length, and continued thus till afternoon, during which time we lay hove to under the lee of the ice. But by two o'clock a smart breeze from the north lifted it. The schooner was put about, and, under close-reefed sails 3 went bumping through the intermina- ble ice-patches which seem ever to choke these straits. The mountains to the northward showed white after the squalls of last night ; and the seals were leaping as briskly amid the ice-cakes as if the terrific scenery of the previous evening had but given zest to their un- wieldy antics. CHAPTER IX. A. Barren Shore, and a Strange Animal, which is captured by blowing up Its Den. Palmleaf falls in with the Esquimaux, and is chased by them. "Twau-ve!" " A Close Shave." An Attack threatened. The Savages dispersed with the Howitzer. T^O avoid the thick patches of heavy ice which were this afternoon driving out toward the Atlantic, we bore up quite near the mainland on the north side, and continued beating on, with the wind north all night, at the rate of at a guess two knots per hour. It was dull work. We turned in at twelve, and slept soundly till five, when the noisy rattling of the cable through the hawse aroused us. The wind had died out, and they had dropped the anchor in forty-three fathoms. It was a cloudy morning : every thing had a leaden, dead look. We were about half a mile from the shore ; and after breakfast, having nothing better to do, fell to examin- ing it with our glasses. Shelving ledges rose up, terrace on terrace, into dark mountains, back two and three miles from the sea. The whole landscape seemed made up of water, granite, and ice. The black, leathern lich- ens added to the gloomy aspect of the shore-rocks, on which the waves were beating forever beating with sullen plashing? Terrible must be the aspect of this 133 J34 LEFT ON LABRADOR. const in \v inter. Now the hundreds of ^fater-fow] wheeling over it, and enlivening the crags with their cries, softened its grimness. Farther along the shore- ledges Kit presently espied a black animal of some kind, and called our attention to it. " He seems to be eating something there," said he. We looked at it. " It's not an Esquimau dog, is it ? " Wade asked. " Oh, no ! head don't look like a dog's," observed Kit. " Besides, their dogs are not so dark-colored as that." " This seems from here to be almost or quite black," Eaed remarked ; " as black as Guard. Not quite so large, though." Wade thought it was fully as large. " If we were in Maine, I should say it was a small black bear," said Kit ; " but I have never heard of a black bear being seen north of Hudson Straits." The head seemed to me to be too small for a bear. " Captain, what do you think of that animal ? " Kit asked, handing him his glass. Capt. Hazard looked. " If it hadn't such short legs, I should pronounce it a black wolf," he replied. " It's too large for a fislier, isn't it ? I don't know that fishers are found so far north, either. How is that ? " " Hearne, in his ' Northern Journey,' speaks of the fisher being met with, farther west, in latitude as far north as this." said I. " But that's too big for a fisher," said Eaed ; " too thick and heavy. A fisher is slimmer." " Who knows but it may be a new species ! " exclaimed LEFT ON LABRADOR. . 135 Kit, laughing. "Now's a chance to distiuguisn our- selves as naturalists ! If we can discover a new animal of that size in this age of natural history, and prove that we are the discoverers, it will be monument enough for us : we can then afford to retire on our laurels. Call it a long Latin name, and tack our own names, with the end- ing ii or MS on them, to that, and you're all right for distant posterity. That's what some of our enterprising young naturalists, who swarm out from Yale and Cam- bridge, seem to think. Only a few weeks ago, I was reading of a new sort of minute infusorial insect or mol- lusk, [ don't pretend to understand which, bearing the name of 'Mussa Braziliensis Hartii Verrill.' Now, I like that. There's a noble aspiration for fame as well as euphony. Only it's a little heavy on the poor mol- lusk to make him draw these aspiring young gentlemen up the steep heights of ambition. But if they can afford to risk two names on a tiny bit of jelly as big as the head of a pin, say, I think we should be justified in putting all four of ours on to this big beast over here. And, since the captain thinks it's like a wolf, suppose we call it 'Lupus rabidus Additonii J3urleighii Raedway- vius ' " ''There, that'll do!" cried Raed. "You've spelt! Go up head ! " <( There's another creature coming along the rocks ! " ex:laimed Wade. "That's a bear! He's coming out where the black one is ! " " There," said Bead, " you can see now that the bear is much the larger." " Yes ; but a white bear is considerably larger than a black bear," replied Kit. 13l> LEFT ON " Look quick ! " cried Wade. " There's going to be a brush ! See the black one bristle up ! " " He's got something there he don't want to give up," said the captain. " Bear says, ' I'll take your place at that,' " laughed Kit. " He walks up to him. By George ! did you see the black one jump at him ? Bear sent him spinning with his paw. He won't go off. Stands there growling, I'll bet." " I should really like to know what sort of a beast that is," said Raed. " Captain, have the boat let down, if you please. I would like to go over there." " Good chance to get another bear-skin," observed Kit. " We need one more." The boat was lowered ; and we four, with Guard, and Weymouth and Don to row, got into it, and paddled across toward where the bear was feeding, and the black creature, sitting up like a dog, watching him. We worked up quietly to within about half a cable's length (three hundred and sixty feet) without disturbing them. It was a pretty large bear : but the black animal did not seem more than two-thirds as large as Guard ; and, the nearer we came to it, the more in doubt we were as to its species. " I never saw any thing at all like it," remarked Raed. " Wouldn't it be jolly if it should prove to be a new, undiscovered animal ! " exclaimed Wade. " That's rather too good to be true," replied Kit ; " but we'll see." Just then Guard got his eye on them, and barked LEFT ON LABRADOR 137 gruffly. The bear looked round : so did the black crea- ture. " Kit, you and Wade take the bear/' advised Raed. " Wash and I will fire at the black one. Get good aim, now." We took as good aim as the rocking of the boat would permit, and fired nearly together. The bear growled out savagely : the black beast snarled. " There they go ! " exclaimed Weymouth. The bear was running off along the shore, galloping like a hog. The black animal was going straight back over the ledges. " Pull in quick ! " shouted Raed. The boat was rowed up to the shore. Jumping out, we pulled it up on the rocks. " Here, Guard ! " cried Kit, running forward to where the ledges gave a better view. " There he goes ! take him now ! " for we had got a momentary glimpse of the black animal crossing the crest of a ledge several hun- dred yards away. " Come on, Weymouth ! " exclaimed Wade ; " and you, Donovan! Let's we three go after the bear. They'll take care of the new species: we'll go for the old" Kit had run on after Guard. R-aed and I followed as fast as we could. The Newfoundland, chasing partly by sight and partly by scent, was already a good way ahead ; and \ve soon lost sight of him among the ledgy hillocks and ridges. We could hear him barking ; but the rockg echoed the sound so confusedly, that it was hard telling where he was. Hundreds of kittiwakes were starting up all about us too, with such a chorus of cries that it was 133 LEFT ON LABRADOK. not very clear which was dog. Presently we lost sound of Guard altogether, and wandered on at random for ten or fifteen minutes, but finally met him coming back. As soon as he saw us, he turned and led off again ; and. following him for thirty or forty rods, we came to a fis- sure between two large rocky fragments, partially over- laid by a third. Guard ran up, and by a bark seemed to say, " In here ! " Kit thrust in his musket, and wo heard a growl. " Holed him ! " cried Raed. "Pretty strong posish, though," said Kit, looking about. "If we only had a big pry here, we might heave up this top rock, and so get at him." " I don't suppose there's a tree big enough to use as a lever within a hundred miles of here," remarked Raed, looking around. We ran in our muskets, but could not touch the crea- ture. He seemed to have crept round an angle of one of the bottom rocks, so as to be well out of reach and out of range. The hole was scarcely large enough to admit Guard, and the dog did not seem greatly disposed to go in. We fired our muskets, one at a time, holding the muzzles inside the opening, hoping to frighten the ani- mal out ; but he didn't see fit to leave his stronghold. " If we had only a pound or two of powder here," ob- served Raed, examining the crevices about the rocks, " I tlr.nk we might mine this top rock, and blow it up." " That will be the only way to get at him," said Kit. " Well, we can go back to the schooner for some," I euggested. "Yes,"' said Kit. "Raed, you and Guard stay here LEFT ON LABRADOR. 139 and watch him. Wash and I will go for the pow- der." We started off, and, on getting back to the beach, found Wade, with Weymouth and Donovan, standing near "he boat. " Where's your bear ? " Kit demanded. "Ycu say," laughed Weymouth, "you were one of the two that shot at him." " He showed too much speed for us," said Donovan, " But where's your new species ? " Wade inquired. " Oh ! he's all right, up here in a hole." " That so ? Here's what he was eating when the bear drove him away," pointing down among the rocks, where a lot of large bones lay partly in the water. " What kind of an animal was that ? " Kit asked. " A finback, I think," replied Weymouth. " Died or got killed among the ice, and the wa?es washed the car- cass up here. Been dead a good while." " I should say so, by the smell. Putrid, isn't it ? Why, that beast must have had a strong stomach ! " Weymouth and Donovan went off to the schooner after the powder in our places, and came back in about twenty minutes. Palinleaf was with them. " You haven't come on another bear-hunt, I hope ! " cried Wade. "No, sar. Don't tink much of dem bars, sar. Got a voice jest like ole massa down Souf. 'Spression very much like his when he used ter take at us cullered folks with his bowie-knife." " Pity he hadn't overtaken you witb it ! " Wade ex- claimed, to hector him. " He would have saved the hangman a job not far distant." 140 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " Dere's a difference ob 'pinions as to where de nooso ought ter come," muttered the affronted darky. " Some tinks it's in one place, some in anoder." Securing the boat by the painter to a rock, we went up over the ledges to where Raed was doing sentinel duty before the fissure. " Has he made any demonstrations ? " Kit asked. " Growls a little occasionally," said Raed. " I've been looking at the cracks under this top rock. This on the right is the one to mine, I think. I've cleared it out : it's all ready for the powder. What have you got for a slow match ?" Donovan had brought a bit of rope, which he picked to pieces, while Kit and Raed sifted in the powder. The tow was then laid in a long trail, running back some two feet from the crack. " Now be ready to shoot when the blast goes off," ad- vised Raed. " He may jump out and run. Palmleaf, you keep Guard back." The rest of us took our stand off thirty or forty yards, and, cocking our guns, stood ready to shoot. Raed then lighted a match, touched the tow, and retired with alacrity. It flamed up, and ran along the train ; then suddenly went nearly out, but blazed again, and crept slowly up to the powder ; when whank ! and the rock hopped out from between the others, and rolled spitefully along the ground. We stood with our guns to our shoulders, and our fingers on the triggers. But the beast didn't show himself. " Possibly it killed him," said Kit. Raed picked up some rough pebbles, and pitched one LEFT ON LABRADOR. 141 over between the rocks. Instantly there was a scramble t and our black-furred friend leaped out and ran. Crack-7t-k-k ! a running fire. Guard rushed after him. The creature fell at the reports, but scrambled up as the dog charged upon him, and tried to defend him- self. But the bullets had riddled him. In an instant, Guard had him by the throat : he was dead. There were five shoe-holes in the carcass : one of them, at least, must have been received when we fired at him from th< boat. It was a very strong, muscular creature, with short stout legs and broad feet, with claws not so sharp and retractile as a lynx's; seemingly intermediate between a cat's claws and a dog's nails. The tail was quite long and bushy : indeed, the creature was rather shaggy than otherwise. The head and mouth were not large for the body. The teeth seemed to me much like those of a. lynx. I have no doubt that it was a glutton (Gulo lus- cus), or wolverine, as they are. indifferently called ; though none of us had at that time previously seen one of these creatures. Donovan and Weymouth undertook to skin it ; and, while they were thus employed, the rest of us, with Palmleaf and Guard, went off to shoot a dozen kittiwakes. We had gone nearly half a mile, I presume, and secured five birds, when Wade called out to us to see a large eagle, or hawk, which was wheeling siowly about a high crag off to the left. " It's a white-headed eagle, isn't it ? " said he- Kit thought it might be. But Raed and I both thought not. It seemed scarcely so large ; and, so far as we could see, the head was not white. It occurred to 142 LEFT ON LABRADOR. me that it might be the famous gerfalcon, or Icelandic eagle ; and, on mentioning this supposition, B-aed and Kit both agreed with me that it seemed likely. Wish- ing, if possible, to secure it, I crept along under the crag, and, watching my chance as it came circling over, fired. 'Twas a very long shot. I had little expectation of hitting : yet my bullet must have struck it ; for it napped over, and came toppling down till within a hundred feet of the top of the crag, when it recovered itself, mounted a little, but gradually settled in the air till lost from sight behind the crag. Thinking it barely possible that it might fall to the ground, I sent Palmleaf with Guard round where the acclivity was not so great, to look for it. The negro had seen the bird fall, and started off. I let him take my musket, and, with the rest of the boys, went down to the water, which was distant from where we then were not more than a hundred rods. Donovan and Weymouth had already finished skinning the glut- ton, and gone down to the boat. Knowing we had fol- lowed off to the left, they embarked, and came paddling along to pick us up. They came up ; and we got in with our kittiwakes, and then stood off a few yards 'to wait for the negro. I had not expected he would be gone so long. We were looking for him every moment ; wheu suddenly we heard the report of his musket, apparently a long way behind the crag. " Confound the darky ! " muttered Raed. " What could possess him to go so far ? " " Perhaps the eagle kept flying on," suggested Kit. We waited fifteen or twenty minutes. No signs 01 him. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 143 " You don't suppose the rascal's got lost, do you ? " Wade said. " No need of that, I should imagine," replied Ka^d. We waited ten or fifteen minutes longer. "We might as well go after him," Kit was saying; when, at a distance, a great shouting and uproar arose, accompanied by the barking of dogs and all the other accompaniments of a general row and rumpus. " What the dickens is up now ? " exclaimed Kit. " It's the Huskies ! " cried Weymouth. " You don't suppose they are after Palmleaf, do you ? " Raed demanded. We listened eagerly. The hubbub was increasing ; and, a moment later, we espied the negro bursting over the ledges off to the left at a headlong run, with a whole crowd of Esquimaux only a few rods behind, brandish- ing their harpoons and darts. There were dogs too. Guard was running with Palmleaf, facing about every few leaps, and barking savagely. All the dogs were barking ; all the Huskies were ta-yar-r-r-ing and chas- ing on. " They'll have him ! " shouted Kit. " To the rescue ! -*' A smart pull of the oars sent the boat up to the rocks. Raed and Kit and Wade sprang out, cocking their mus- kets ; Donovan followed with one of the oars ; and I seized the boat-hook, and started after them. Palmleaf was tearing down toward the water, running for his life. He had lost the musket. Seeing us, he set up a piteous howl of terror. He had distanced his pursuers a little. The savages were now six or eight rods behind ; but the Jogs were at his heels, and were only kept off him by the 144 LEFT ON LABRADOR. sudden facings and savage growls of Guard, who val- iantly stemmed the canine avalanche. We met him about fifty yards from the boat, and raised a loud hurrah. " Into the boat with you ! " Raed sang out to him. The dogs howled and snarled viciously at us. Dono- van cut at them with his oar right and left ; while Raed, Kit, and Wade levelled their muskets at the horde of rushing, breathless savages, who seemed not to have seen us at all till that moment, so intent had they been after the negro. Discovering us, the front ones tried to pull up; and, those behind running up, they were all crowded together, shouting and screaming, and punching each other with their harpoons. "Avast there!" shouted Donovan, flourishing his oar. " Halt ! " ordered Wade. While Kit, remembering a word of Esquimaux, bade them " Tivau-ve " (" Begone ") at the top of his voice. I must say that they were a wicked-looking lot, the front ones, at least, comprising some of the largest Es- quimaux we had yet seen. There must have been thirty or forty in the front groups ; and others were momenta- rily rushing in from behind. The dogs too, fifty or sixty at least calculation, great, gauat, wolfish, yellow curs, looked almost as dangerous as their masters. " We must get out of this ! " exclaimed Raed ; for they were beginning to brandish their harpoons menacingly, and shout and howl still louder. " If we turn, they'll set upon us before we can get into the boat ! " muttered Kit. " Fire over their heads, to gain time ! " shouted Wade, " Ready ! " LEFT ON LABRADOR. 145 The three muskets cracked. A great hi-yar-r-r and screeching followed the reports; under cover of which and the smoke we legged it for the boat, and, tumbling in, were shoved hastily off by Weymouth. Before we had got twenty yards, however, the savages were on the bank, yelling, and throwing stones, several of which fell in among us ; but we were soon out of their reach. "That's what I call a pretty close shave!" exclaimed Donovan, panting. " We couldn't have stood against them much longer," said Kit. " I didn't suppose they had so much ferocity about them. Those we saw down at the middle islands were kittenish enough." "These may belong to a different tribe," replied Raed. Palmleaf, completely exhausted, lay all in a heap in the bow. We pulled off to the schooner. The savages and their dogs kept up a confused medley of howls and shouts : it was hard distinguishing the human cries from the canine. Capt. Mazard and the men were leaning over the rail, waiting. They had been watching the fracas, and un- derstood it as little as we did. "What's the row?" demanded the captain as we came under the stern. " What's all that beastly noise about ? " " Ask Palmleaf," said Wade. " I saw you fire," continued the captain. " You didn't kill any of them, did you ? " "Oh, no!" said Raed. "We fired high to frighten them." 10 146 LEFT ON LABRADOR. " I'm glad you didn't kill any of the poor wretches." " Tell us how it happened, Palmleaf," said Kit. " Did you come upon them ? or did they come upon you ? " I asked. " Why, I was gwine arter dat hawk, you know," said the African, still sober from his terror and his race. " Yes." " He was fell down ober behind de crag, as you said he'd be ; but he flew up 'fore I'd gut near 'im, an' kep' flyin' up." "And you kept following him," added Raed. "Well, what next ? How far did you go ? " " Oh ! I went a long ways. I meant ter fotch 'im." "Half a mile?" "Yes, sar; should tink so." " Did you fire at the eagle ? " Kit asked. " Yes, sar : seed him settin' on a ledge, an' fired. He flew, and I chased arter him agin." " But how did you come to meet the Huskies ? " de- manded the captain. " Well, sar, I'se runnin' along, payin' all my 'tention to de hawk, when all ter once I come plump onto two ob dere wimin folks wid a lot ob twine tings in dere han's." " Snaring birds," said Kaed. " Go on ! " " Dey seed me, an' stud lookin', wid dere hair all ober dere faces." "That stopped you, I suppose?" said Wade. " I jest halted up a bit, an' cast my eye t'-vurds dem." " You paid the most of your ' 'tentiou ' to them, then?" continued Wade maliciously. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 147 " Jest stopped a rainit." "To say a word to them on your own account, I'll warrant." " Thought I'd jest speak an' tell dem dey needn't be ser 'fraid on me." " Shut up, Wade ! " interposed Kit. " Let him tell his story. What did the women do?" " Dey turned an' naked it, an' hollered as loud as dey cud squawk." Wade and the captain began to laugh. " A black man with a black dog was too much for them ! " exclaimed Eaed. " Well, what next, Palmleaf ? " "Dey run'd ; an' 'twan't a minit 'fore a whole gang ob de men cum runnin' up, wid dere picked bone tings in dere ban's." " That'll do," said Kit. "We know the rest." "What became of my musket?" I asked. " I dunno. I tink I mus' ha' dropped it." " It does look like that," Kit remarked. " See here, you ' Fifteenth Amendment ' ! " exclaimed the captain, turning to him : " you had better stay aboard in future." " I tink so too, sar," said Palmleaf. The crowd on the shore had grown larger. There could not have been much less than two hundred of them, we thought. The women and children had come. A pack of wolves could hardly have made a greater or more discordant din. We went to dinner, and, after that, lay down to rest a while ; but when we went on deck again at three, P.M., "he crowd was still there, in greater numbers than before 148 LEFT ON LABRADOR. "I wonder what they can be waiting for so long," said Wade. There was little or no wind, or we should have weighed anchor and made off. After watching them a while longer, we wen 4 : down to read. But, about four, the cap- tain called us. We went up. " That was what they were waiting for," said he, point- ing off the starboard quarter. About a mile below the place where the Esquimaux were collected, a whole fleet of kayaks were coming along the shore. "Waiting for their boats," remarked the captain. " They're coming off to us ! " " Do you suppose they really have hostile intentions ? n Raed asked. " From their movements on shore, and their shouts and howls, I should say that it was not impossible. No knowing what notions they've got into their heads about the 'black man.'" " Likely as not their priests, if they've got any, have told them they ought to attack us," said Wade. " There are fifty-seven of those kayaks and three oo- miaks coming along the shore ! " said Kit, who had been watching them with a glass. " Hark ! The crowd on shore have caught sight of them ! What a yelling ! " " I do really believe they mean to attack us," Raed observed. "This must be some nasty superstition on their part ; some of their religious nonsense." " Well, we shall have to defend ourselves," said Kit. "Of course, we sha'n't let them board us," replied Wade. LEFT ON LABRADOR. 149 " Poor fools ! " continued Kaed. " It would be too bad if we have to kill any of them." " Can't we frighten them out of it in some way ? " I inquired. "Might fire on them with the howitzer," Kit sug- gested, " with nothing but powder." " That would only make them bolder, when they saw that nothing came out of it," said Capt. Hazard. "Put in a ball, then," said Kit. " That would be as bad as shooting them here along- side." " It might be fired so as not to be very likely to hit them," said Kaed. " Couldn't it, Wade ? " " Yes, : might put in a small charge, and skip the ball ricochet it along the water." " Let's try it," said Kit. The howitzer was pushed across to the starboard side. "Kemember that there's a pretty heavy charge in there now," said Wade. " Better send that over their heads ! " The gun was accordingly elevated to near thirty degrees. Raed then touched it off. The Esquimaux, of course, heard the report ; but I doubt if they saw or heard any tiling of the ball. It doubtless went a thousand feet over their heads ; and just then, too, the kayaks and oomiaks canio up where they were stand- ing, and a great hubbub was occasioned by their arrival. " Try 'em again ! " exclaimed Donovan. " Give them a skipping shot this time," said Wade. A light charge of powder was then put in, with a ball, as before. The gun was not elevated this time ; in- 150 LEFT ON LABRADOR. deed, I believe K/aed depressed it a few degrees. We watched with a great deal of curiosity, if nothing more, while Kit lighted a splint and touched the prim- ing. A sharp, light report; and, a second later, the ball struck on the water off four or five hundred yards, and ricochetted, skip skip skip skip spat into the loose shingle on the beach, making the small stones and gravel fly in all directions. The Huskies jumped away lively. Very likely the pebbles flew with some considerable violence. But in a moment they were swarming about the kayaks again, uttering loud cries. With the re-enforcement they had just received, they numbered full a hundred or a hundred and fifty men. Should they make a determined effort to board us, we might have our hands full, or at least have to shoot a score or two of the poor ignorant wretches ; which seemed a pitiable alternative. " Load again ! " cried Wade. " Let rne try a shot ! " About the same quantity of powder was used as before. Wade did not depress the muzzle, if I recollect aright, at all. Consequently, on firing, the ball did not touch the water till near the shore, when it skipped once, and bounded to the beach, going among a whole pack of the howling dogs. A dreadful "Ti-yi" came wafted to our ears. One, at least, had been hit. With a glass we could see him writhing and jumping about. At this some of the crowd ran off up the ledges for several rods, and stood gazing anxiously off toward the schooner. "Give 'em another! " exclaimed the captain. But, while we were loading, twenty or thirty got into their kayaks; and one of the oomiaks had eight or ten in LEFT ON LABRADOR. 151 it ere Wade was ready to give them a third shot. He depressed it three degrees this time. The ball hit the water about half way to the shore, and, skipping on, struck under the stem of a kayak, throwing it into the air, and,, glancing against the side of the skin-clad oomiak*, dashed it over and over. The crew were pitched head- long into the water. Pieces of the bone framework flew up. The skin itself seemed to have been turned wrong side out. " Knocked it into a cocked hat ! " exclaimed Kit. " I hope none be a sea- sarpent, sur." As the object was certainly twenty feet long, and not more than a foot and a hajf in diameter, Trull's supposi- tion had the benefit of outside resemblance. The cap- LEFT ON LABRADOR. 157 tain seized one of the pike-poles, and made a jab at it ; but the schooner, under full headway, had passed it too far. "Get a musket!" shouted Kit. We all made a rush down stairs for the gun-rack. Only three were loaded. Catching up one of these, I ran up. " Off astern there ! " cried Weymouth. We were already fifty yards away; but, getting a glimpse of it, I fired. There was no movement. " Missed him ! " exclaimed Wade. " I'll bore him ! " He fired. Still there was no apparent motion. " Miss number two," said, I. Kit then took a careful aim, and banged away. The creature didn't stir. " Number three," laughed Wade. " That fish must either bear a charmed life, or else it's ball-proof!" Kit exclaimed. Meanwhile "The Curlew" was being brought round. The captain was getting interested. Raed brought up one of our long cod-lines with the grapnel on it, the same contrivance with which old Trull had drawn in the boat some days before ; and, on getting back within twenty yards, he threw it off. It struck into the water beyond, and, on being drawn in, played over the back of the leathern object till one of the hooks caught fast. Still there was no movement. " There can't be any life in it," said Wade. Raed pulled in slowly, the captain assisting him, till they had drawn it up under the bows. It certainly looked as much like a sea-serpent as any thing yet. A 158 LEFT ON LABRADOR. strong line, with another grapple, was then lot down, and hooked into it with a jerk. Donovan and Hobbs tugged away at it ; one foot two feet three feet. "Humph!" exclaimed the captain. "One of those Husky kayaks ! " Four feet five feet six feet. Something rose with it, dripping underneath. " Good Heavens ! " exclaimed Raed, turning away. "There's an Esquimau in it, hanging head down!" cried Kit. The sailors crowded round. It was a ghastly sight. The legs of the corpse were still fast inside the little hoop around the hole in the deck. in which the man had sat. His arms hung down limp and dripping. His long black hair streamed with water. He might have been floating there head down for a week. " Wai, I shouldn't s'pose the darn' d fool need to have expected any thing else ! " exclaimed Corliss. " To go to sea with his feet fast in such a little skite of a. craft as that! Might ha' known the darned thing 'ud 'a' cap- sized an' drownded him." "What shall we do with it?" I asked. "We might sink it with three or four of those six-pound shot, I sup- pose." "No, no!" exclaimed Wade. "We can't afford six- pound shots to bury the heathen : it's as much as we can do to get enough to kill them with." " Oh, don't, Wade !" said Raed. " It's a sad sight at best." " Of course it is. But then we've only got seventeen balls left, and no knowing how many battles to fight." LEFT ON LABRADOR. 159 This last argument was a clincher. " Let go ! " ordered the captain. Don and Hobbs snook the line violently, but cculdn't tear out the grapple from the tough seal-skin. " Well, let go line and all. then ! " cried the cap- tain. With a dull plash the kayak fell back into the sea ; and we all turned away. At midnight the ice-patches were thickening rapidly ; and by two o'clock all sail had to be taken in, the bumps had grown so frequent and heavy. On the port side lay a large ice-floe of many acres extent. The schooner gradually drifted up to it. Kaed and Kit had gone on deck. " I think we may as well make fast to it," I heard the captain say ; and, a moment later, the order was given to get out the ice-anchors. Wade, and I then went up. " The Curlew '' lay broad- side against the floe. The wind, with a current caused perhaps by the tide, held us up to it so forcibly, that the vessel careened slightly. Weyinouth and Hobbs were getting down on to the ice with the ice-chisels in their hands, and, going off twenty or thirty yards, began to cut holes. The ice-anchors were then thrown over on to the floe. To each of them was bent one of our two-and- a-half-inch hawsers. The anchors themselves were, as will probably be remembered, simply large, strong grap- nels. Dragging them along to the holes, they were hooked into the ice, and the hawsers drawn in tight from deck. Planks, secured to the rail by lines, were then run down to bear the chafe. This was our process 160 LEFT ON LABRADOR. of anchoring to ice. Sometimes three or four grapnels were used when the tendency to swing off was greater. To-night there was so much floating ice all about, that the swell was almost entirely broken, and the schooner lay as quiet as if in a country lake. A watch was set, and we turned in again. Breakfast at six. Fog thick and flat on the i^e. The breeze in the night, blowing against the schooner, had turned the ice-field completely round. Occasionally a cake of ice would bump up against us. We could heai them grinding together all about; yet the wind was light, otherwise we might have had heavier thumps. About seven o'clock we heard a splashing out along the floe. " Seals ! " remarked the captain. " Bet you, I'll have one of those fellows ! " exclaimed Donovan, catching up a pike-pole, and dropping over the rail. " Can he get near enough to kill them with a pole, suppose ? " Wade queried. " That's the way the sealers kill them," replied the captain. " Send the men out on the ice with nothing but clubs and knives. The seals can't move very fast : nothing but their flippers to help themselves with. The men run along the edges of the ice, and get between them and the water. The seals make for the water ; and the men knock them on the heads with clubs, and then butcher them." " It's a horribly bloody business, I should think," said Baed. "Well, not so bad as a Brighton slaughter-pen, quite," LEFT ON LABRADOR. 161 rejoined the captain. " But I never much admired it, I must confess." Just then Donovan came racing out of the fog, and, jumping for the rail, drew his legs up as if he believed them in great peril. " What ails you ? " Kit cried out. " What are you running from ?" " Oh ! nothing much," replied Donovan, panting. " Met a bear out here : that's all." " Met a bear ! " exclaimed Raed. "Yes. I was going along, trying to get by some of the seals. All at once I was face to face with a mighty great chap, on the same business with myself, I suppose. Thought I wouldn't wait. He looked pretty big. I'd nothing but the pole, you know." " We must have him 1^' exclaimed Wade. "Best way will be to let down the boat, and work round the floe to prevent his taking to the water," ad- vised the captain. "They will swim like ducks three or four miles at a time." While the bout was being let down, Kit and I ran to load the muskets. " I'm going to put the bayonets on our two," said Kit " They'll be handy if we should corno to close quarters with him." Kaed and Wade, with the captain, were getting ready to go out on the ice. Weymouth and Hobbs were Al- ready in the boat. Kit and I followed. "Now be very careful about firing in this fog," the captain ca^ed after us. " We are going off to the right, round the edge of the floe on that side. You keep off n 162 LEFT ON LABRADOR. on the left to see that he don't escape that way. Head him up toward the schooner if you can ; but look out how you shoot." Old Trull and Corliss, each with a gun, had been sta- tioned at the rail to shoot the bear from the deck if he should come out in sight. Thus arranged, we pulled away, veering in and out among the ice-patches, and keeping about twenty yards from the floe. We could just see the edge of it rising a few feet from the water. " Guess the bear run from Don after all his fright," said Weymouth when we had gone a hundred yards or more. He was not on our side, we felt pretty sure ; and, a few minutes later, Guard barked, and we heard the cap- tain shouting from across the field, " Here he is over here ! " And a moment after, " Gone over towards your side ! Look out for him ! " We looked out as sharply as we could for fog : never- theless, the first notice we got of his arrival in our vicinity was a splash into the water several rods farther on. " Give way sharp," shouted Kit, " or we shall lose him ! " The boat leaped under the strong stroke ; and, a mo- ment after, we saw the bear climbing out on to a cake, which tipped up as he got on to it. " Give him your shot, Wash ! " Kit exclaimed. We were not more than fifty feet away. I aimed for his head, and let go. The bullet clipped one of his ears merely, and he turnei round, with a dreadfully savage LEFT ON LABRADOR. 163 growl. Of course it was a bad shot ; but some allow- ance must be made for the rocking of the boat. As he turned to us, the ice-cake tipped and rolled under him. nearly throwing him off; at which he growled and barked out all the louder. Kit hesitated to fire. "He might make a break, and get his paws on to the boat before we could back off, if you shouldn't kill him," said Hobbs. " Load as quick as you can, Wash," Kit said. " I'll wait till we have a reserve shot." Meanwhile we heard voices coming out on the floe. Guard began to bark again, and came jumping from cake to cake out within a few rods of the bear, and rather between us and him. "Be ready, now," said Kit; when some one of the party on the floe fired on a sudden. Instantly the bear jumped for the dog ; and the dog, turning, leaped for a little cake between him and the boat. The bear splashed through, and gained the cake Guard had stood on. Crack crack ! from the floe. The bear growled frightfully as he felt the bullets, and plunged after the dog. We both fired as he went down into the water. Guard's paws were already on the gunwale, when the bear rose, head and paws, and swept the dog down with him, souse ! A howl and a growl mingled. The water was streaked red with the bear's blood. The captain and Wade and Donovan eame leaping out from one fragment to another. Up popped the dog's black head. Something bumped the bottom of the boat simultaneously. The bear had coma 164 LEFT ON LABRADOR. up under us, and floated out on the port side, a great mass of dripping, struggling white hair. Everybody was shouting now. Wade fired. Bits of blazing car- tridge-paper flew into our faces. Kit and I thrust wildly with our bayonets ; but the poor beast had already ceased all offensive warfare. He was dead enough. But who had killed him it was hard saying. No less than seven bullets had been fired into him from " a standard weapon," as Wade calls our muskets. We towed the carcass up to the edge of the floe, and pulled it up. The captain estimated its gross weight to be from four hundred and fifty to five hundred pounds. This waa the largest one we had killed. Donovan and Weymouth and Hobbs were occupied the rest of the forenoon skin- ning it. It being a favorable opportunity, we improved it to make soundings. From where we lay moored to the floe, the nearest island was about three leagues to the east, and the northern main from ten to twelve miles. For sounding we had a twenty-four-pound iron weight, with a staple leaded into it for the line. Dropping it out of the stern, we ran out a hundred and seventy- three fathoms before it slacked. The depth of the strait at that place was given at ten hundred and thirty-eight feet. I should add, that this was considerably deeper than we had found it below that point. CHAPTER XL Isle Aktok." A Sea-Horse and a Sea-Horse Hunt. In High Spirit*. Sudden Interruption of the Hunt. A Heavy Gun. The Race to the Ledge- Tops. Too Late. A Disheartening Spectacle. Surprised by the Company's Ship. The Schooner in Peril. Capt. Mazard bravely waits. The Flight of " The Curlew " amid a Shower of Balls. The Chase. Left on the Islet. A Gloomy Prospect. "What shall we have for Grub to atel" Wild-Geese. Egging. "Jloom!" A Sea-Horse Fire. r I COWARD night the wind changed to north, and _L_ thinned out the pdftch-ice, driving it southward, so that by ten o'clock, evening, we were able to get in our ice- anchors and make sail, continuing our voyage, and making about four knots an hour till nine o'clock next morning, when we were off a small island, the first of a straggling group on the south side of the strait. South-east of this islet was another large island, which we at first mistook for the south main, but, after comparing the chart, concluded that it was " Isle Aktok. " To the north the mainland, '-vith its fringe of ledgy isles, was in sight, distant not far from thirteen leagues. We had been bearing southward considerably all night, falling off from the wind, which was north-west. We were now, as nearly as we could reckon it up, a hundrel and nineteen leagues inside the entrance of the straits at Cape Resolution. Raed and 106 LEFT ON LABRADOR. I were below making a sort of map of the straits, look- ing over the charts, &c., when Kit came running down. " There's a sea-horse off here on the island ! " said he. "A sea-horse ! " exclaimed Raed.