Bowdoin Boys in Labrador | Page 4

along the Nova Scotia coast, lying low and blue on our
northern board. The Fourth dawns rather foggy, but it soon yields to the
sun's rays and a good breeze which bowls us along toward the Cape.
An elaborate celebration of the day is planned, but only the poem is
finally rendered, due probably to increased sea which the brisk breeze
raises incapacitating several of the actors for their assigned parts. The
poem, by the late editor of '91's "BUGLE," is worthy of preservation,
but would hardly be understood unless our whole crowd were present
to indicate by their roars the good points in it.
At night our constant follower, the fog, shuts in, and the captain
steering off the Cape, we lay by, jumping and rolling in a northeast sea,
waiting for daylight to assist us to Cape Canso Harbor and the Little
Ant. About six next morning we form one of a fleet of five or six sail
passing the striped lighthouse on Cranberry Island, and with a rush go
through the narrow passage lined with rocks and crowded with
fishermen. Out into the fog of Chedebucto Bay we soon pass and in the
fog we remain, getting but a glimpse of the shore now and then, till we
reach Port Hawkesbury.
JONA. P. CILLEY, JR.
* * * * *

ON BOARD THE "JULIA A. DECKER," OFF ST. JOHN'S BAY,
NEWFOUNDLAND.
We are bowling along with a fine southwest wind, winged out, mainsail
reefed and foresail two-reefed, and shall be in the straits in about two
hours. The Julia is a flyer. Between 12 and 4 this morning we logged
just 46 knots, namely, 13.5 miles per hour for four hours. I doubt if I
ever went much faster in a sailing vessel. It is now about 10 o'clock,
and we have made over 75 miles since 4.
All hands are on watch for a first glimpse of the Labrador coast, which
will probably be Cape Armours with the light on it.
I wrote last time from Hawkesbury in the Gut of Canso. We laid there
all day Monday, July 6th, as the wind, southeast in the harbor, was

judged by everybody to be northeast out in George's Bay, and
consequently dead ahead for us. Monday evening, at the invitation of
the purser, we all went down aboard the "State of Indiana," the regular
steamer of the "State Line" between Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Boston,
touching at Halifax, and in the Gut.
After going ashore we stayed on the wharf till she left, singing college
songs, giving an impromptu athletic exhibition, etc., to the intense
delight of about fifty small boys (I can't conceive where they all came
from), and the two or three hundred servant girls going home to P.E.I.
for a summer vacation.
I would put in here parenthetically, that since writing the above I have
been on deck helping jibe the mainsail, as we have changed our course
to about east by north, having rounded a couple of small low, sandy
islands off the Bay of St. John, and now point straight into the strait of
Belle Isle.
In the afternoon we examined some of the old red sandstone which
underlies all that part of Cape Breton Island, found some good
specimens, and some very plain and deep glacial scratches. There is
also some coal and a good deal of shale in with the sandstone.
We had a good opportunity to see this, since the railroad connecting
Port Hawkesbury with Sidney is new, having started running only last
March, and hence the cuts furnished admirable fields in which to
examine the geology. The road is surveyed and bed made along the
Cape Breton shore of the Gut nearly to the northern end, and when
completed will be a delightful ride. I think the Gut for 10 miles north of
Port Hawkesbury resembles the Hudson just by the Palisades. It is
grander than Eggemoggin Reach and on a far larger scale than Somes'
Sound. At the northern end it broadens and becomes just a magnificent
waterway, without the grand scenery. We were becalmed nearly all day
in George's Bay, at one time getting pretty near Antigonish, but got a
breeze towards evening. We tried fishing several times but could not
get a bite though several fishermen were in sight and trawls
innumerable. We passed one fisherman, a fine three-master, just as we
were coming out of the Gut from Frenchman's Bay, going home, but
with very little fish.
I got the captain to call me about 4, Wednesday morning, to fish, but
got none. We were then off North Cape, having had a good breeze all

night. The wind was light all day, but towards the latter part of the
afternoon commenced to blow from the southeast,