Left on Labrador | Page 7

the
proposition for lemonade in Hudson Straits has never been satisfactory
settled. We none of us can remember how the lemons came on board.
Wade says they were bought as an antidote for sea-sickness. A far more
sensible article of traffic was twenty dollars' worth of iron in small bars;
four dozen large jack-knives; twenty butcher-knives, and the same
number of hatchets. We had also a web of red flannel at twenty dollars;
in all, ninety dollars.
For mattresses, blankets, "comforters," and buffalo-skins, there was
expended the sum of a hundred and twenty-three dollars. Ten
Springfield rifles at ten dollars each (bought at an auction-sale), with a
quantity of cartridges, one hundred and twelve dollars. For an old
six-pound howitzer, purchased by Capt. Mazard from a schooner
supposed to have been engaged in the slave-trade, nineteen dollars; and
for ammunition (powder, iron shot, and a lot of small bullets),
thirty-seven dollars.
For firing at seals or bears from the deck of the schooner, we had made,
at Messrs, R. & Co.'s machine-shop, a large rifle of about an inch bore,
and set like a miniature cannon in a wrought-iron frame, arranged with
a swivel for turning it, and a screw for elevating or depressing the
muzzle. This novel weapon was, as I must needs own, one of my
projection, and was always a subject for raillery from my comrades. Its
cost, including the mounting, was ninety-seven dollars. In all, three
hundred and eighty-eight dollars.
Then there were other bills, including the cost of several nautical
telescopes, also ice-anchors, ice-chisels, sounding-line, hawsers, &c., to
the sum of a hundred and three dollars.

The lumber and carpenter work on "The Curlew" at Portland made a
bill of a hundred and nine dollars; seamen's wages to Gloucester, with
car-fare back, nineteen dollars; bracing and strengthening the schooner,
sixty-seven dollars; cost of getting in fuel and water, thirty-three dollars;
and other bills to the amount of forty-nine dollars: in all, two hundred
and seventy-seven dollars. We had thus to pay out at the start over
eleven hundred dollars. Capt. Mazard, too, was kept as busy as
ourselves superintending the work, putting the vessel in ballast, &c.
Indeed, it's no small job to get ready for such a cruise. We had no idea
of it when we began.
CHAPTER II.
Up Anchor, and away.--What the Old Folks thought of it--The
Narrator's Preface.--"Squeamish."--A North-easter.--Foggy.--The
Schooner "Catfish."--Catching Cod-Fish on the Grand Bank.--The First
Ice.--The Polar Current.--The Lengthening Day.--Cape Farewell.--We
bear away for Cape Resolution.--Hudson's Straits.--Its Ice and Tides.
[In Wash's manuscript, the voyage as far as Cape Resolution occupies
four chapters. We have been obliged to condense it into one, as
indicated by periods.--ED.]
On the afternoon of the 9th of June, Capt. Mazard telegraphed, "Can
sail to-morrow morning if the wind serves."
We had been ready several days, waiting for the last job,--strengthening
the schooner.
Good-by was said; and, going out to Gloucester, we went on board to
pass the night.
As some of our readers may perhaps feel inclined to ask what our
"folks" said to this somewhat adventurous departure, it may as well be
stated that we were obliged to go considerably in opposition to their
wishes, advice, counsel; in short, everything that could be said save a
down-right veto. It was unavoidable on our part. They could not be
brought to look upon our (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 great length of time, sorry
that we went: on the contrary, I now believe it far the best way we
could have spent our money; though the experience was a rough one. It
may also be added, that we did not publicly state our intention of going
so far north as Labrador; one reason for this being, that we were in no
wise certain we should go farther than St. John's, Newfoundland.
Our "saloon" was arranged with a sort of divan, or wide seat, along the
starboard-side, at about chair-height. On this we laid our mattresses and
blankets. Each had his bunk, this divan serving in the place of berths.
The captain had his toward the forward end of the apartment. Guard
bunked directly under him on an old jacket and pants. Along the
port-side 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