Recollections of Labrador Life (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1861. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIII. SPRING, SPRING-DUCKS, ETC. It frequently happens on the coast that in midwinter we have what is termed a "silver-thaw," when it rains and freezes at the same time. The wind is then generally from the east, the weather is boisterous, and numbers of birds of two kinds--the one kind lean and the other fat and well-favoured--come whirring down upon us. The former is the ptarmigan, a bird of the grouse kind. It generally weighs about a pound --seldom, if ever, more. After the long journey these ptarmigans must have had, they arrive in poor condition, and are scarce worth the trouble n of killing. It is not so with the other sort--a delicious, small but plump bird, called on the coast the "snow-bird," and in England the ortolan. Of these I have caught as many as two hundred a day. They are, even in Labrador, one perfect mass of fat, but are not of an over-rich flavour. They are, as in England, about the size of our bullfinches, and I have had as many as a hundred in a pie at one time, which beats the "four-and-twenty blackbirds." These birds are always the forerunners-- generally, in one sense, the bringers--of rough, stormy weather, when the seals again make their appearance, and when some fresh sport is unexpectedly afforded to those who are fond of it. With an easterly wind the weather is generally thick, and the sun is obscured. The temperature, too, undergoes very rapid changes: at midday it will thaw and in the evening freeze, so that the ground becomes dangerous to walk on. We generally wear what on the coast are called "creepers," which are made in the shape of a cross with thick "starts," and which are much the same as cricketers wear in England. Many a fall have I had over a rock during the prevalence of a "silver-thaw," and only had P...