canoes advance side by side. Time passes on, the tide swiftly recedes as
it rose, and there are the birds left on the beach. See with what pleasure
each wild inhabitant of the forest seizes his stick, the squaws and younglings
following with similar weapons ! Look at them rushing on their
prey, falling on the disabled birds, and smashing them with their cudgels,
until all are destroyed ! In this manner upwards of five hundred wild
fowls have often been procured in a few hours.
Three pleasant days were spent about Point Lepreaux, when the
Fancy spread her wings to the breeze. In one harbour we fished for
shells, with a capital dredge, and in another searched along the shore for
eggs. The Passamaquody chief is seen gliding swiftly over the deep in
his fragile bark. He has observed a porpoise breathing. Watch him,
for now he is close upon the unsuspecting dolphin. He rises erect, aims
his musket; smoke rises curling from the pan, and rushes from the iron
tube, when soon after the report comes on the ear;—meantime the porpoise
has suddenly turned back downwards;—it is dead. The body
weighs a hundred pounds or more, but this to the tough-fibred son of the
woods is nothing; he reaches it with his muscular arms, and at a single
jerk, while with his legs he dexterously steadies the canoe, he throws it
lengthwise at his feet. Amidst the highest waves of the Bay of Fundy,
these feats are performed by the Indians during the whole of the season
when the porpoises resort thither.
You have often no doubt heard of the extraordinary tides of this bay;
so had I, but, like others, I was loth to believe that the reports were
strictly true. So I went to the pretty town of Windsor, in Nova Scotia,
to judge for myself. But let us leave the Fancy for a while, and fancy
ourselves at Windsor. Late one day in August, my companions and I
were seated on the grassy and elevated bank of the river, about eighty
feet or so above its bed, which was almost dry, and extended for nine
miles below like a sandy wilderness. Many vessels lay on the high banks,
taking in their lading of gypsum. We thought the appearance very
singular, but we were too late to watch the tide that evening. Next morning
we resumed our station, and soon perceived the water flowing towards
us, and rising with a rapidity of which we had previously seen no example.
We planted along the steep declivity of the bank a number of sticks,
each three feet long, the base of one being placed on a level with the top
of that below it, and when about half flow the tide reached their tops,
one after another, rising three feet in ten minutes, or eighteen in the
hour ; and, at high water, the surface was sixty-five feet above the
bed of the river ! On looking for the vessels which we had seen the preceding
evening, we were told that most of them had gone with the night
tide.
But now we are again on board the Fancy; Mr CLAREDGE stands
near the pilot, who sits next to the man at the helm. On we move swiftly,
for the breeze has freshened ; many islands we pass in succession ; the
wind increases to a gale ; with reefed sails we dash along, and now rapidly
pass a heavily laden sloop gallantly running across our course with
undiminished sail; when suddenly we see her upset. Staves and spars
are floating around, and presently we observe three men scrambling up
her sides, and seating themselves on the keel, where they make signals of
distress to us. By this time we have run to a great distance; but CLAREDGE,
cool and prudent, as every seaman ought to be, has already issued
his orders to the helmsman and crew, and now near the wind we gradually
approach the sufferers. A line is thrown to them, and next moment we
are alongside the vessel. A fisher's boat, too, has noticed the disaster;
and, with long strokes of her oars, advances, now rising on the curling
wave, and now sinking out of sight. By our mutual efforts the men are
brought on board, and the sloop is slowly towed into a safe harbour.
In an hour after my party was safely landed at Eastport, where, on
looking over the waters, and observing the dense masses of vapour that
veiled the shores, we congratulated ourselves at having escaped from the
Bay of Fundy.