preparation for it. His little vessel was to carry him to the bleak
and desolate coast of Labrador and into the ice fields of the North.
He was to meet new and strange people, and he was destined to
experience many stirring adventures.




IV

DOWN ON THE LABRADOR


Heavy seas and head winds met the _Albert_, and she ran in at the
Irish port of Cookhaven to await better weather. In a day or two she
again spread her canvas, Fastnet Rock, at the south end of Ireland,
the last land of the Old World to be seen, was lost to view, and in
heavy weather she pointed her bow toward St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Twelve days later, in a thick fog, a huge iceberg loomed suddenly up
before them, and the _Albert_ barely missed a collision that might
have ended the mission. It was the first iceberg that Doctor Grenfell
had ever seen. Presently, and through the following years, they were
to become as familiar to him as the trees of the forests.

Four hundred years had passed since Cabot on his voyage of discovery
had, in his little caraval, passed over the same course that Grenfell
now sailed in the _Albert_. Nineteen days after Fastnet Rock was lost
to view, the shores of Newfoundland rose before them. That was fine
sailing for the landfall was made almost exactly opposite St. Johns.