Bowdoin Boys in Labrador | Page 6

taking the highest honors for scholarship
at Bowdoin, teaching and university work in his chosen branch, have
prepared him mentally, for the great task in which he leads.
Cole who accompanies him up Grand River, was Prof. Lee's assistant
on the "Albatross," and is well fitted by experience and by a vigorous
participation in athletics at college before his graduation in '88.

From the expedition's actual starting place, Rockland, there are four
members: Rice, the yachtsman, Simonton, Spear and the writer, all fair
specimens of college boys, and eager to get some reflection from the
credit which they hope to help the expedition to win.
Portland has two representatives: Rich, '92, and Baxter, 93, the latter
our only freshman; while Bangor sends three: Hunt, '90, Hunt, '91, who
has charge of the dredging, and Hastings the taxidermist.
W.R. Smith, another salutatorian of his class, is one of the many Maine
boys whom Massachusetts has called in to help train the youth of our
mother Commonwealth, and has been at the head of the High School at
Leicester for the past year. He, too, is thought to equal in physical vigor
his mental qualities, and has been selected to brave the hardships of the
Grand River.
To complete the detail for this exploration, Young of Brunswick and of
'92, has been selected, another athlete of the college, who has had, in
addition to his training at Bowdoin, a year or more of instruction in the
schools and gymnasiums of Germany.
Porter, Andrews, and Newbegin, the latter, the only man not from
Maine, coming from Ohio, and only to be accounted for as a member of
the expedition by the fact that his initials P.C. stand for Parker
Cleaveland, finish the list, with but one exception and that is Lincoln.
The merry-maker and star on deck and below--except when the weather
is too rough--he keeps the crowd good-natured when fogs, rain, head
winds and general discomfort tend to discontent: and on shore he sees
that the doctor is not too hard worked in making the botanical
collections.
For two days we lazily drifted, the elements seeming to be making up
for their late riot; but the weather was clear and bright, the scenery way
off to our starboard was grand, and no one was troubled by the delay,
except as the thoughts of the Grand River men turned to the great
distance and the short time of their trip. At last, however, the breeze
came, with which I opened this letter, and which we then hoped would
continue till we reached Battle Harbor.
We just flew up the straits, saw many fishermen at anchor with their
dories off at the trawls, schooners and dories both jumping in great
shape; also a school of whales and an "ovea" or whale-killer, with a fin
over three feet long sticking straight up. He also broke right alongside

and blew. Considerable excitement attended our first sight of an iceberg;
it was a rotten white one, but soon we saw a lot, some very dark and
deep-colored.
[Red Bay] Our first sight of the long-desired coast was between Belle
Armours Point and the cliffs near Red Bay, the thick haze making the
outlines very indistinct. Just two weeks out from Rockland we made
our first harbor on the Labrador coast. Red Bay is a beautiful little
place, and with the added features of two magnificent icebergs close by
which we passed in entering, the towering red cliffs on the left from
which it takes its name, and the snug little island in the middle, and the
odd houses we saw dotting the shores of the summer settlement of the
natives, it seemed a sample fully equal to our expectations of what we
should find in Labrador.
There is an inner harbor into which we could have gone, with seven
fathoms of water and in which vessels sometimes winter as it is so
secure, but we did not enter it because the captain was doubtful which
of the two entrances to take and the chart seemed indefinite on the point.
There are about one hundred and seventy-five people in the settlement,
some of them staying there the year round, fishing in the summer and
hunting the rest of the time. They have another settlement of winter
houses at the head of the inner harbor, but, for convenience in getting at
their cod traps, live on the island in the middle, and on the sides of the
outer harbor in the summer. Their houses are made of logs about the
size of small railroad ties, which are stood on end and clapboarded. The
winter houses are built in a similar way with earth packed around and
over them.
The party for Grand River--Cary, Cole, W.R. Smith and Young--have
decided to dispense