Along the Labrador coast / by Charles Wendell Townsend.

  • Townsend, Charles Wendell, 1859-1934.
Date:
[1907], ©1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Along the Labrador coast / by Charles Wendell Townsend. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fished the stream and fought the flies, returning triumphantly with one salmon and one large trout. We turned in that night while the ship was still fast to the whale factory wharf, unload¬ ing coal, but notwithstanding the noise of the winches and the smell of departed whales, that was thick enough to be cut with a knife, we slept the sleep of the just. At Flower’s Cove, the last stop on the New¬ foundland side, we went ashore in the mail-boat, and got a taste of the arctic conditions that we should see on the Labrador side. Barren rocks and moors, reindeer and sphagnum moss, dwarf spruces, firs and willows, bake-apple flowers and mountain azaleas, men in skin boots, sealskins stretched on frames, howling and fighting Eskimo dogs, made us eager for what was to come. Just as we were finishing supper, the mate put in his head and said, “ There is a bull-bird, sir, swimming close to the ship.” I rushed out, and sure enough a dovekie or little auk was swimming in such a bewildered way so close to the vessel that the mate was able to