The Audubon Reader (61 page)

The wind now freshened, the
Ripley
’s sails swelled and she was gently propelled through the water and came within sight of the harbor, on the rocks of which we stood waiting for her, when all of a sudden she veered and we saw her topsails hauled in and bent in a moment; we thought she must have seen a sunken rock and had thus wheeled to avoid it, but soon saw her coming up again and learned that it was merely because she had nearly passed the entrance of the harbor ere aware of it. Our harbor is the very representation of the bottom of a large bowl, in the center of which our vessel is now safely at anchor, surrounded by rocks fully a thousand feet high, and the wildest-looking place I ever was in. After supper we all went ashore; some scampered up the steepest hills next to us, but John, Shattuck and myself went up the harbor, and after climbing to the top of a mountain (for I cannot call it a hill) went down a steep incline, up another hill and so on till we reached the crest of the island and surveyed all beneath us.

Nothing but rocks—barren rocks—wild as the wildest of the Apennines everywhere; the moss only a few inches deep and the soil or decomposed matter beneath it so moist that wherever there was an incline the whole slipped from under our feet like an avalanche and down we slid for feet or yards. The labor was excessive; at the bottom of each dividing ravine the scrub bushes intercepted our way for twenty or thirty paces over which we had to scramble with great exertion, and on our return we slid down
fifty feet or more into an unknown pit of moss and mire, more or less deep. We started a female Black-cap Warbler from her nest, and I found it with four eggs, placed in the fork of a bush about three feet from the ground; a beautiful little mansion, and I will describe it tomorrow. I am wet through, and find the
mosquitoes as troublesome as in the Floridas.

July 15
. Our fine weather of yesterday was lost sometime in the night. As everyone was keen to go off and see the country, we breakfasted at three o’clock this morning. The weather dubious, wind east. Two boats with the young men moved off in different directions. I sat to finishing the ground of my Grouse and by nine had to shift my quarters, as it rained hard. By ten John and Lincoln had returned; these two always go together, being the strongest and most active as well as the most experienced shots, though Coolidge and Ingalls are not far behind them in this. They brought a
Red-necked Diver and one egg of that bird; the nest was placed on the edge of a very small pond not more than ten square yards.

Our harbor had many
Common Gulls; the captain shot one. I have never seen them so abundant as here. Their flight is graceful and elevated; when they descend for food the legs and feet generally drop below the body. They appear to know gunshot distance with wonderful precision and it is seldom indeed that one comes near enough to be secured. They alight on the water with great delicacy and swim beautifully.

Coolidge’s party brought a nest of the
White-crowned Bunting and three specimens of the bird, also two Semipalmated Plovers. They found an island with many nests of the
Double-crested Cormorant but only one egg, and thought the nests were old and abandoned. One of the young
Ravens from the nest flew off at the sight of one of our men and fell into the water; it was caught and brought to me; it was nearly fledged. I trimmed one of its wings, and turned it loose on the deck, but in attempting to rejoin its mother, who called most loudly from on high on the wing, the young one walked to the end of the bowsprit, jumped into the water and was drowned; and soon after I saw the poor mother chased by a Peregrine Falcon with great fury; she made for her nest, and when the Falcon saw her alight on the margin of her ledge it flew off. I never thought that such a Hawk could chase
with effect so large and so powerful a bird as the Raven. Some of our men who have been eggers and fishermen have seen these Ravens here every season for the last eight or nine years.

July 16
. Another day of dirty weather, and all obliged to remain on board the greater portion of the time. I managed to draw at my Grouse and put in some handsome wild peas,
Labrador tea-plant and also one other plant unknown to me. This afternoon the young men went off, and the result has been three
White-crowned Buntings and a female
Black-capped Warbler. Our captain did much better for me, for in less than an hour he returned on board with thirty fine
codfish, some of which we relished well at our supper. This evening the fog is so thick that we cannot see the summit of the rocks around us. The harbor has been full of Gulls the whole day. The captain brought me what he called an Esquimaux codfish, which perhaps has never been described, and we have
spirited
him. We found a new species of floweret of the genus
Silene
but unknown to us. We have now lost four days in succession.

July 17
. The
mosquitoes so annoyed me last night that I did not even close my eyes. I tried the deck of the vessel, and though the fog was as thick as fine rain, these insects attacked me by thousands and I returned below, where I continued fighting them till daylight, when I had a roaring fire made and got rid of them. The fog has been as thick as ever and rain has fallen heavily, though the wind is southwest. I have drawn five eggs of land birds: that of the
Pigeon Hawk, the White-crowned Sparrow, the Brown Titlark, the
Black-poll Warbler and the
Savannah Finch. I also outlined in the mountainous hills near our vessel as a background to my
Willow Grouse. John and Coolidge with their companions brought in several specimens, but nothing new. Coolidge brought two young of the
Red-necked Diver, which he caught
at the bottom
of a small pond by putting his gun rod on them—the little things diving most admirably, and going about the bottom with as much apparent ease as fishes would. The captain and I went to an island where the
Double-crested Cormorant were abundant; thousands of young of all sizes, from just hatched to nearly full-grown, all opening their bills and squawking most vociferously; the noise was shocking and the stench intolerable. No doubt exists with us
now that the
Shore Lark breeds here; we meet with them very frequently. A beautiful species of
violet was found and I have transplanted several for Lucy, but it is doubtful if they will survive the voyage.

July 18
. We all, with the exception of the cook, left the
Ripley
in three boats immediately after our early breakfast, and went to the mainland, distant some five miles. The fog was thick enough, but the wind promised fair weather and we have had it. As soon as we landed the captain and I went off over a large extent of marsh ground, the first we have yet met with in this country; the earth was wet, our feet sank far in the soil and walking was extremely irksome. In crossing what is here called a wood, we found a nest of the
Hudson’s Bay Titmouse containing four young, able to fly; we procu
red the parents also, and I shall have the pleasure of drawing them tomorrow; this bird has never been figured that I know. Their
manners
resemble those of the Black-headed Titmouse or Chickadee and their notes are fully as strong and clamorous, and constant as those of either of our own species. Few birds do I know that possess more active powers. The nest was dug by the bird out of a dead and rotten stump, about five feet from the ground; the aperture, one and a quarter inches in diameter, was as round as if made by a small Woodpecker or a flying squirrel. The hole inside was four by six inches; at the bottom a bed of chips was found, but the nest itself resembled a purse formed of the most beautiful and softest hair imaginable—of sables, ermines, martens, hares, etc.; a warmer and snugger apartment no bird could desire even in this cold country.

On leaving the wood we shot a
Spruce Partridge leading her young. On seeing us she ruffled her feathers like a barnyard hen and rounded within a few feet of us to defend her brood; her very looks claimed our forbearance and clemency, but the enthusiastic desire to study nature prompted me to destroy her and she was shot, and her brood secured in a few moments; the young very pretty and able to fly. This bird was so very gray that she might almost have been pronounced a different species from those at Dennysville last autumn; but this difference is occasioned by its being born so much farther north; the difference is no greater than in the Red Grouse in Maine and the same bird in western
Pennsylvania. We crossed a savannah of many miles in extent; in many places the soil appeared to wave under us, and we expected at each step to go through the superficial moss carpet up to our middles in the mire; so wet and so spongy was it that I think I never labored harder in a walk of the same extent. In traveling through this quagmire we met with a small grove of good-sized, fine white
birch trees and a few
pines full forty feet high, quite a novelty to us at this juncture.

On returning to our boats the trudging through the great bog was so fatiguing that we frequently lay down to rest; our sinews became cramped, and for my part, more than once I thought I should give up from weariness. One man killed a
Pigeon Hawk in the finest plumage I have ever seen. I heard the delightful song of the
Ruby-crowned Wren again and again; what would I give to find the nest of this
northern Hummingbird
? We found the
Fox-colored Sparrow in full song and had our captain been up to birds’ ways, he would have found its nest; for one started from his feet and doubtless from the
eggs as she fluttered off with drooping wings and led him away from the spot, which could not again be found. John and Co. found an island with upwards of two hundred nests of the
Common Gull, all with eggs but not a young one hatched. The nests were placed on the bare rock; formed of seaweed, about six inches in diameter within and a foot without; some were much thicker and larger than others; in many instances only a foot apart, in others a greater distance was found. The eggs are much smaller than those of the Great Black-backed. The eggs of the Cayenne Tern [
sic
: probably the Caspian Tern] were also found and a single pair of those remarkable birds, which could not be approached. Two
Ptarmigans were killed; these birds have no whirring of the wings even when surprised; they flew at the gunners in defense of the young, and one was killed with a gun rod. The instant they perceive they are observed when at a distance they squat or lie flat on the moss, when it is almost impossible to see them unless right under your feet. From the top of a high rock I had fine view of the most extensive and the dreariest wilderness I have ever beheld. It chilled the heart to gaze on these barren lands of
Labrador. Indeed I now dread every change of harbor, so horribly rugged and dangerous is the whole coast and country,
especially to the inexperienced man either of sea or land. The
mosquitoes, many species of
horsefly, small
bees, and
black gnats filled the air; the frogs croaked; and yet the thermometer was not high, not above 55°. This is one of the wonders of this extraordinary country. We have returned to our vessel, wet, shivering with cold, tired and very hungry. During our absence the cook caught some fine
lobsters; but fourteen men, each with a gun, six of which were double-barreled, searched all day for game and have not averaged two birds apiece, nineteen being all that were shot today. We all conclude that no one man could provide food for himself without extreme difficulty. Some animal was seen at a great distance, so far indeed that we could not tell whether it was a wolf or a caribou.

July 19
. So cold, rainy and foggy has this day been that no one went out shooting and only a ramble on shore was taken by way of escaping the motion of the vessel, which pitched very disagreeably, the wind blowing almost directly in our harbor; and I would not recommend this anchorage to a
painter naturalist
, as Charles Bonaparte calls me. I have drawn two Boreal Chickadees, and this evening went on shore with the captain for exercise, and enough have I had. We climbed the rocks and followed from one to another, crossing fissures, holding to the moss hand and foot and with difficulty for about a mile, when suddenly we came upon the deserted mansion of a Labrador sealer. It looked snug outside and we entered it.

It was formed of short slabs, all very well greased with seal oil; an oven without a pipe, a salt box hung on a wooden peg, a three-legged stool, and a wooden box of a bedstead, with a flour-barrel containing some hundreds of seine-floats and an old seal seine, completed the list of goods and chattels. Three small windows, with four panes of glass each, were still in pretty good order, and so was the low door, which moved on wooden hinges for which the maker has received no patent, I’ll be bound. This
cabin made of hewn logs brought from the main was well put together, about twelve feet square, well roofed with bark of birch and spruce, thatched with moss and every aperture rendered airtight with oakum. But it was deserted and abandoned; the seals are all caught, and the sealers have naught to do here nowadays. We found a pile of good hard wood close to this abode, which we will have removed on board our vessel tomorrow.

I discovered that this cabin had been the abode of two French Canadians; first, because their almanac, written with chalk on one of the logs, was in French; and next, the writing was in two very different styles. As we returned to our vessel I paused several times to contemplate the raging waves breaking on the stubborn, precipitous rocks beneath us and thought how dreadful they would prove to anyone who should be wrecked on so inhospitable a shore. No vessel, the captain assured me, could stand the sea we gazed upon at that moment, and I fully believed him, for the surge dashed forty feet or more high against the precipitous rocks. The
Ravens flew above us, and a few
Gulls beat to windward by dint of superior sailing; the horizon was hid by fog so thick there and on the crest of the island that it looked like dense smoke. Though I wore thick mittens and very heavy clothing, I felt chilly with the cold. John’s violin notes carry my thoughts far, far from
Labrador, I assure thee.