Left on Labrador

.-Foggy.-The Schooner "Catfish."-Catching Cod-Fish on the Grand Bank.-The First Ice.-The Polar Current.-T

lution occupies four chapters. We have been obliged t

Capt. Mazard telegraphed, "Can sail t

ys, waiting for the last job

g out to Gloucester, we wen

or rather Raed's) project of self-education as we did; they saw only the danger of the sea. Had we done as they advised, we should have stayed 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 written. Nor can I say conscientiously, by way of moral, that we were ever, for any gr

de 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

e galley. As a specimen of his art, we had him make muffins and te

ned to their berths. We boys turned in at about eleven, and were only aroused next mo

rting up. "Turn out, and say far

arf. 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 al

aking you. We made too much noise. I suppose. Smart breeze this. Make ten knots on it, easy. Could put

udson Straits were thi

uld do it. But of course this is mere fine talk

g do you suppose it will take to wo

ghteen to twenty-five. Oughtn't to be over twenty-five

th the swells. The whole east was reddening. The dark spar of the bow-sprit rose and fell through it. It seemed a

ng shame, added to the rather inconvenient distance 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 ambitions to have the number large) will kindly forbear to criticise it; for it will

not been our intention to become sailors. We would merely use the

ent on deck a while; but the motion was far too great for comfort. The breeze held. The coast of Massachusetts was low in the west. To the north, the mountains of Maine showed blue on the horizon. We went below to read. Raed had bought, borrowed, and secured every work he could hear of on northern voya

ust the slightest feeling of nausea. Kit shuts his book

k?" dema

uch; just a li

own on his mattress,

?" To which he p

amish a littl

to inquire, "Sick here, anybody?"

nly a bit

d had veered to the south, and almost wholly lulled. We slept pretty well that night; but the next forenoon the nausea returned, and stuck

pt as near it as possible, making about three knots an hour. The wind increased during the fore

e 'poison spring' at K

pper ca

gale?" Raed m

rdinary no

sh to meet an extraordi

f them rolled out, and began a series of races from one end of the cabin to the other, smashing recklessly 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 I should not. They went back and forth at will, till the captain, hearing the noise, came down, and after a great amount of dodging and grabbing, which might have been amusing at any other time, succeeded in capturing the truants and locking them up. The next day it was no

er schoonah," we heard him m

to the northward, and continued due north all that day and the next. It may have been fancy; but we all

mpse 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 the sea. So light was the wind, that the sails scarcely

e, captain?" Raed asked. We st

and Bank, I think. Fog indicates that.

ts and ice from Baffin's Bay," said Kit. "The warm cur

banks are all raised from the ocean-bottom by the débris broug

"The iceberg has lots of sand and stones frozen into it: when it melts, this

es have had a hand

rhaps a half-dozen causes have been at work. Another man will ascribe it wholly to another of these causes. And thus they seem to contradict each other, when they are both, in part, rig

pt. Mazard since, when reading some of th

here, for a gu

, a hundred fath

od-fishing here

l try them, howeve

enuine old-fashioned dinner-horn-pealed

ull, caught up a tin bucket setting near, and began drumming furiously; while the skipper, divin

ut to us. "Make all the noise you

and, at the same moment, we saw the dim outl

that?" demande

of Gloucester," re

re b

om

ive us the

en the sun for a week. Not far f

ny danger of

e than a hundred mile

e were seven hands on deck; all boys of sixteen and eighteen, save one. Thi

to warn the fishermen. It continued foggy all night, but looked thinner by nine next morning. The captain brought up an armful of out-r

s, "we will try the cod.-Palmleaf! Palmleaf!

bite it," sa

tain. "It's pork or nothing. We've no clams nor manh

et down into the green water. For some time we fished in silence. No bites. We kept patiently fis

" we all

thing; he

p!" cried t

f the wet line was pulled in; and by and by the head of a tremendous fellow pa

f an ounce!" shou

he captain. "Now swin

n the big fish gave a sudden squirm. The hook, which was but slig

l, just at that moment, Wade cried, "I have one!" when all attention was turne

safely landing him on deck, where he was unhook

, having once begun to bite, they kept at it, unt

weight of them.-Here, Palmleaf, pick 'em up, dress 'em, and put 'em in pickle: save what we want for dinner

hey have on a cod-fisher eve

have to follow it for a month," replie

very shrewd guess, to say the least. In the afternoon we had a fair breeze from the south-east. All sail 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 curren

nd rose earlier; till, on the 28th of June, its bright red

ell,-a mountainous headland, crowned with sno

into Hudson Straits, bears west ten degrees north, and is distant no

ks it up, and the high tides beat it in pieces. It is rare that a vessel can enter the straits during June for the out-coming ice; but by July it has become sufficiently broken up and dispersed to allow of an entran

make Cape Resolution, wait for a fair wind, and slip into the straits early in the day, so as to get as far up as possible ere night came on. A person who has never been