Audubon and his journals (1897) (14771135103)

Identifier: audubonhisjourna02audu (find matches)
Title: Audubon and his journals
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Audubon, John James, 1785-1851 Audubon, Maria Rebecca, 1843-1925 Coues, Elliott, 1842-1899
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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undantly gratified whenever an oppor-tunity presents itself. Much had been said to me respecting these destructivepirates before I visited the coast of Labrador, but I couldnot entirely credit all their cruelties until I had actuallywitnessed their proceedings, which were such as to in-spire no small degree of horror. But you shall judge foryourself. See yon shallop, shyly sailing along; she sneaks likea thief wishing, as it were, to shun the very light ofheaven. Under the lee of every rocky isle some one atthe tiller steers her course. Were his trade an honestone, he would not think of hiding his back behind theterrific rocks that seem to have been placed there as aresort to the myriads of birds that annually visit thisdesolate region of the earth, for the purpose of rearingtheir young at a distance from all disturbers of theirpeace. How unlike the open, the bold, the honest mar-iner, whose face needs no mask, who scorns to skulkunder any circumstances. The vessel herself is a shabby
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AUDUBON, 1S50. IROM A DAGUERREOTYPE. OWNED BY MRS. ELIZABETH BERTHOUD GRIMSHAVV. EPISODES 407 thing; her sails are patched with stolen pieces of bettercanvas, the owners of which have probably been strandedon some inhospitable coast, and have been plundered,perhaps murdered, by the wretches before us. Look ather again! Her sides are neither painted, nor evenpitched; no, they are daubed over, plastered and patchedwith strips of Seal-skins laid along the seams. Her deckhas never been washed or sanded ; her hold — for no cabinhas she — though at present empty, sends forth an odorpestilential as that of a charnel house. The crew, eightin number, lie sleeping at the foot of their totteringmast, regardless of the repairs needed in every part ofher rigging. But see! she scuds along, and as I suspecther crew to be bent on the commission of some evil deed,let us follow her to the first harbor. There rides the filthy thing! The afternoon is halfover. Her crew have thrown their boat overboar