A MONTH IN LABRADOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2242, 18 February 1897, Page 38

A MONTH IN LABRADOR.

Being in Quebec about the middle of June, and baviDg au idle six weeks in frout of mo, I decided, •'from information received," to run up the north »hore of the St. Lawrence beyond the Sapuena? and the Godbjufc (which we-e w<«ll known to me) to try a small river I had hoard of not far from Pfce. do Monts. It is not desirable to give the name, as for the present its rocks have not beeu disgraced by staring advertisements in letters stt high iv red and black paint of pills worth a guinea a box, or hair restorer, or solid leather portmanteaus fenat have seen their bant days. Cauoe» and lufiians were sent up from Nova Scotia »uid New Brunswick ahead of me with orders to be on the look-out in 10 days' time ; and to paddle to any vessel whon she hove-to on hearing two double shots fired. You can get up the coa^t either by oue of the small trading steamers that are constantly running or hire a sailing boat. Take which you like — both are bad. In four days after departure we were off the river, and stopped about 600 yds from shore. The signal wus answered immediately by the appearance x>i two birch-bark canoes Hearing us, and after some difficulty we and our belongings were transferred to them. I may mention that a birch-bark is not a good hack on an Atlantic swell, which finds its way up the Gulf at intervals, but we landed without mishap -in spite of it. The outlook wns not inviting, it must be admitted. 'fcjonae grey sand, • a few rocki, stunted birch and brush, and a sprinkling of starving willows led to a tangled jungle of various kinds of pine trees— none more tluu 60ft high. One could now feel for Robinson Crusoe after the shipwreck, bat at any rate be was worse off thau ouraelvts, as he did not know where he was, and we did. A spot for our camp being decided on, it was not long before the tmt was fixed in the centre of a triangle whose sides were the sea, the river, and the uuknown north. A fire was soon hissing and spluttering, the kettle boiling, and tea made, and in this, the best beverage for caiap life, we drank to absout friends and death to excursionists. Corned beef and hard biscuits, backed by appetite, make a fe*st not to be exchanged for a supper at the Suvoy. The rods were spliced, cast* soaked, and a small double-hooked Jock put on, aud, stepping into a canoe, we paddled out to where the fiesh watsr joined (he s*lt, as fish were waated for breakfast nex 1 ; morning. Were I limited to one fly for the remainder of my life, Jock Ecot would bo my fancy as my sole support ; in many waters, thousands of miles apart, it has not betrayed the confidence I h&ve in it. At the end of three hours n dczen and a-half of s>ja trout were stiffening io the c*noe, the heaviest bsing 51b 3-z and the smnlhs 1 ; just under lib. They have not the same appearance that we aie used to in Scotch and Irish watt- rs, as they look more grteu thin silvery ; rtill, they riss pretty freely, and fight like the old gentleman himself when hooked.* They are not bad eating either ; but cut yellow, not pink. Returning to the shore, the next thing was to tidy up, cut wood, and make up beds. I know of nothing more luxurious to lie on thau 18in of curved iir boughs (curve down), with a waterproof under aud a blanket over you. The ripple of the river, the nw»»h of the incoming ! tide, the crunk of the irogs, aud the wild cry of j the night bird* make music enough to encourage sleep if anything will do no. Up uext morning, an early swim in the sea, the sale water washed I off by a plunge into the river, trout for breakfast, and ready for further explorations by 8 a.m. It is worth mentioning that a pair of ospreys had their neat; and half-fledged brood within 200 yards of the camp, tne youngsters shrieking an the old birds returned to them about every 20 minutei. The old birds appeared to have their tinae fully occupied in providing for thair noisy offspring, aud were fishing in the bay from dawn till dusk, as far as one could make out, but rarely made a bad shot when they made their plunge. It ii almost uunecossary to state that we never moleited them in any way. Put; in the scale the plexcure derived from a stuffed bird to that obtained by watching it in its natural and living state, and, if you have any eye for the picturesque, you will prefer the latter. At this seaside camp we remained a week with varied success. The trout took the fly well, more particularly at the incoming and receding tides, and a. few grilse added a charm to the m jnotooy of trout after trout ; but when these latter ran up to nearly lOln (the best weighed 9£lb), it really mattered little whether a good trout or a small grilse was the result. Rather on the side of the trout for the glutton in numbers, I fancy ' One salmon wag caught in this tidal water (12£lb). But of salmon, later on I had made a. trip up the rivnr on the third day after j arrival to look out for pools and possibilities j for camping ground, aud in one bend I hit off a woodeu shanty which, by it* appearance, had not been inhabited for years. It; was but a hut 12tt by 10ft. Bare earth was the carpet i and cobwebs the ceiling. Fur furniture, there I wan oi c huge nail that had evidently been overlooked by its late owner. Ha may have been, for all I know, Famine's eldest son, who had a compulsory sale on his premises before leaving, but as no pencil-marked catalogue was to be discovered to uur«.vel facts, the reality must remain a bank B»d as it looked, ifc was still better thau nothing ; and as doubtlef s the Temple o£ Diana at Ephesus could be pub into '

| a tenanUble repair by the expenditure of a few millions, why not my find for about sdol P So drifting down stream it wu settled to convert; thi» hovel into- a fishing palace as quickly as poasiblo; ■ A beautiful rapid, boiling and broken, tumbled into a deep pool with rocky bottom, and then gliding into tho river found iti way to the sea. Quoh was the outlook from tbe doorway (there was no door left) as I surveyed our future premises. A Canadian kingfisher, horrified at this intrusion on hit domain, flaihed by, and a snake nearly a fathom long* disnp- \ peared into * patch of the flowering fern ! (Osmund* regalia) hard by. These snakes are ! non-poisonous, aud live principally on frogs, but they hare % fancy for your bed of fir boughs, and ara inquisitive and much given to making further acquaintance with new-comers and their im- ! ported chattels — which all men would objeot to :if carried to excesg. So down to the original | camp I floated to prepare for x move up-stream ; on the morrow, which was accordingly done. > The curse of the country is the mosquito and the black fly, without doubt. When the talented author of "In My Indian Garden" declared that the mosquito was invented " to encourage the manufacture of net curtains, and to teach mankind humility," he cannot possibly have had any nvidenoe of what the black fly can be and do When it really meant minchief. The Englishlanguage would fail anyone to deedribe whbt one think* of this persevering imect^nd the most daring publisher would shrink from printing what hats been satd about it Possibly, in the far west of America au editor might be discovered who would tackle the question and replies, but no nearer than St. Louis certainly. Evdn a bishop would require a cocktail befoifrhe scanned hit) morning paper pickled in black-fly anat?h«m«s. The evening was cerUJnly the best time by far on tho river for sport with s\loicn, and little could be done before 3 p.m. No minnow or any form of spinning was attempted. The best take war six fish on one day to two rods ; they averaged- 111b. . I do not propose to go into details of each" day Vflshing, as it would bore" me" an much to .write them as anyone el»e to rend. There was one 18-pounder, however, that" gave a lot trouble, owing to his tuiky nature and to t'ae fact that, he was hooked very late one evrming, when daylight had nearly vanished. I took him on » Jock Scott, medium-iizefl, double-hooked, and he run oub over 60yclo of line directly down stream, and then • turned «»Dd made back as hard fw he could go. Undar these conditions it wat an impossibility to keep a taut line, and I thought I wan done ; but he stopped in deep water ne.srly under the- c*noe, aad, there sulked, for reasons best known to himielf. The . line .was sion on the 'reel again, and I put. some pressure on him, which showed on my rod ■ that delicious nonsense (P) which kills bo' many fish (as we read about) and disi gusts so many readers, At any rate yon, my loDg- | fufferiDg critic, kuoir what the rod would re- | sr-inble at the moment. ' Stir he would not, I although by letting ouff live we got a«hor6 and I returned with sufficient stones of various sizes ito rouse him. .It was now dark ; whether the current. carried the stones past him or not is an u-nsolve'd query. Afterwards we found that this pool' was syd* deep Where he had been lying, and there may hate bean a rock behind which I he sheltered. - Whether his own inclinations | prompted him ' v to. migrate, or whether it was | owing to a smart tap ou the tod that vibrated down to- him I-kuow not, but he sailed off, to my r'elicfj to some shallower water — and we followed; ■ - It was now a matter of something giving way before that obstinate fish sbonld regain hi* former stronghold if inclined to do. so. Giving him the buttreeverely, he was evidently about .tired with the tu-sle when I handed the rod to the Indian and took the gaff into mv own hands. After one bad shot I had him. Gaffing a fish when it is dark and 4ft of water over him is not quite so simple as some may imagine, though it is stale news to tell fishermen so. For this very small minority of tho male »ex this narrative h written, and I trust they will, »fter 55 minute* in the d«rk, and devoured by flies, come out of the battle victorious. Of deer, we saw none. One black bear I met nearly face to face when armed with nothing but a 16tt salmon rod . He looked— aud left. The southern birds had come north to breed, and there .were ground orchids (oypripedium) in plenty. Tnerewere lots of lobsters iv the little pools round the rock* at Jow water, easy enough to fu down with a. V-»haped st.ck, and pick up with jour fingers cut of 2ft of clear water. Salt itt the proper sauce for crimped saltnon. not 101-sters ; but as we have heard before optimum condimtntum fames is" a better. Your appetite is assured by hard work and fre«h air. For those who cau do without a French chef, and do uot mind mosquitoes, black flies, aad harra-lc-ss snakes as bedfellows and daily attendants, there are mauy worse places to spend a few^ weeks in thau Western Labrador. — Kokoomish" ia the Field.