Vast flocks
of willow grouse (like ptarmigan) were everywhere to be met with; the
many lakes were covered with geese, swans, and ducks. The woods were
full of pigeons; the salmon swarmed up the rivers to breed; the sea
round the coasts was--except in the wintertime--the richest fishery in
the world. They caught lobsters in the rock pools, and speared or
clubbed seals and great walruses for their flesh and oil. An
occasional whale provided them with oil, blubber, and meat. The Great
Auk--which could not fly--swarmed in millions on the cliffs and
islets. So abundant was this bird, and so fat, that its body was
sometimes used as fuel, or as a lamp. In the summertime their fish and
flesh diet could be varied by the innumerable berries growing
wild--strawberries, raspberries, currants, cranberries, and
whortleberries. The _capillaire_ plant yielded a lusciously sweet,
sugary substance.[15]
[Footnote 15: This was the Moxie plum or creeping snowberry
(_Chiogenes hispidula_).]
[Illustration: GREAT AUKS, GANNETS, PUFFINS, AND GUILLEMOTS]
The Beothiks were a tall, good-looking people, with large black eyes
and a light-coloured skin. The early French and Biscayan seamen, who
resorted to the coasts of Newfoundland for the whale fisheries,
reported these "Red Indians" to be "an ingenious and tractable people,
if well used, who were ready to help the white men with great labour
and patience in the killing, cutting-up, and boiling of whales, and
the making of train oil, without other expectation of reward than a
little bread or some such small hire".
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