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.