not include meals. Now such were the prices charged for the
wretchedly-cooked food served on the Virginia Lake that a
moderately hungry man could scarcely have his appetite killed at a
less expense than six dollars a day. So Hubbard returned the
passes to the general passenger agent with thanks, and purchased
tickets, which did include meals, and which reduced the cost
considerably.

The Virginia Lake is a steamer of some seven hundred tons burden.
She is subsidised by the Newfoundland Government to carry the mails
during the fishing season to points on the Labrador coast as far
north as Nain. She is also one of the sealing fleet that goes to
"the ice" each tenth of March. When she brings back her cargo of
seals to St. Johns, she takes up her summer work of carrying mail,
passengers, and freight to The Labrador--always a welcome visitor
to the exiled fishermen in that lonely land, the one link that
binds them to home and the outside world. She has on board a
physician to set broken bones and deal out drugs to the sick, and a
customs officer to see that not a dime's worth of merchandise of
any kind or nature is landed until a good round percentage of duty
is paid to him as the representative of the Newfoundland
Government, which holds dominion over all the east coast of
Labrador. This customs officer is also a magistrate, a secret
service officer, a constable, and what not I do not know--pretty
much the whole Labrador Government, I imagine.

The accommodations on the Virginia Lake were quite inadequate for
the number of passengers she carried. The stuffy little saloon was
so crowded that comfort was out of the question. I had to use some
rather impressive language to the steward to induce him to assign