The west shore., August 01, 1884, Page 249, Image 23

THE WEST SHORE.
249
were banished. But I could not forget that dreadful
haunting pymbnl. O God, whit misery! You cnnnot
realize it, my friends. It clung to me and followed me
everywhere everywhere everywhere. Then it received
fresh emphasis; I received notice of the death of one of
my brothers. He died exactly a year after-the last. I
immediately severed all communication with the remain
ing brother, so that I should not know the date of his
death, and I retired into complete solitude in a wild and
unknown canyon in the vain hope of escape, but the
symbol came up more vividly than ever. Every rock
took the shape of a curious clock, striking over and over
again the fatal number, and the dismal cawing of the
ravens fell like mockery on my ears. I felt that I should
go stark mad if I remained in that place, so I quitted it
and wandered ceaselessly from valley to valley and from
cretit to crest, seeking diversion. I staid in one town or
in one habitation only long enough to rest and learn the
road to another. Still the apparition followed me, and
even to-night as I pushed my way through the snow, I
heard the same ten strokes of the bell. I felt that the
fatal hour was not far off. I was becoming benumbed
and my horse found his own path. I knew not where to
go, but suddenly I found myself face to face with this
house and almost under the glowing window. As booh as
I became warm the stagnant blood coursed through my
veins and life appeared beautiful to me. For the first
time in many weary years I almost forgot my fate and
the hateful symbol Imagine, therefore, my doHpair
when my eyes fell on that clock and behold its awful
warning. My heart stood still and the blood froze in my
veins. I knew that my hour was nigh. I know, I fool,
that the tenth year is done, and that to-morrow morning
at ten minutes past five my soul will take its flight into
the mystery of mysteries. The deed of bhxxl will be
avenged. So be it"
lie ceased and stared desxndently into the fire. No
one spoke for some time; then we did our bost to console
the ioor man, assuring him he was meroly the victim of
his own imagination, and urging him to shake off his
melancholy. But it was unavailing. He retired sadly
to the chamber assigned to him, and in the morning when
we opened it to wake him and chaff him alxiut his fours,
we found him cold in death, an expression of the most
intense agony still resting on his contorted foatures and
on his throat some curious blue sjx)t, looking as if some
bony hand had clutched long and hard around Lis neck.
"We buried him under a pine tree, and it was many months
before I could rid myself of the disagreeable sensations
produced by this extraordinary occurrenca F. H. D.
m
A I'BOcehs for coloring and bronzing leather lias boon
patented by Loreiwio Klopfer, of Munich, Germany. The
leather is wrapod in a cloth moistened with water and
milk, washed with a mixture of white of egg, glycerine
and water, covered with a varnish, and then a flexible
collodion compound, followed by a coating of sizo of
similar mixture, to which the metal coaling is applied
before the mixture has become dry. .
SALMON FISHING ON LABRADOR COAST.
ONE of tho most important of tho Lubudui' Cmulm
next to the cod is that of the salmon, though they are
by no moansa s extensive there as in tho lower Canadian
provinces, especially of Rostigouohe and the Bay of
Chalour, on the south side of the River St Lawrence.
The salmon go up the river to spawn; returning, they are
fimind in the adjacent waters of the river along tho coast
in tho late summer and early fall. The number of fish
annually captured is immense Tho lxst and in fact
only real, season for capturing those fish is a few weeks
in the early autumn. Thoy aro caught in gill sots, large
or small, with a regulation mesh of six inches. Tho nets
are placod along shore at the mouth of the river, or
across some channel of tho stream, and visited every
day. Tho fish entangle themselves in tho meshes, which
nre made BuflloionUy largo to allow the young to escape
by passing entirely through them, and aro hold until the
fisherman comes and soouros his catch. The fish aro
then out open from head to tail, and carefully cleaned
insido and out nil the black skin being pooled off the
backbone, Thoy are thou soaked in fresh water, then
iu salt brine and finally packed in barrels. There are
seldom more or less than twonty-throo fish to a barrel.
As each barrel brings about 112 cash, each fish is valued
at fifty cents. This is, of course, tho first cost of the
fish. Salmon fishing is only in its prime for alxmt four
weeks, Imtwcon, say, July 25 and August '25. This fishing
is plentiful all along tho rivers on tho coast, and thoro is
seldom one that has not several fisheries upon it I
should say that a barrel of salted salmon will avorago
about two hundred pounds in weight Salmon ore, other
than above, preserved by drying, smoking and canning.
The latter process is rarely, if at all, employed in
Labrador; tho other two seldom. They are smoked much
as herring are, and dried in tho sun much as cixlfish on
fish-flakes. Salmon are caught with the hook and lino
by those who care to angle for thoiu, and as the rivers
and bays are quite full at tho proxr season, it is a work
of pleasure and profit to practice tho rod with this king
of fish in his native element and at home when ho is
most abundant
The dredgers of the machine Arctic, of Wilmington,
Del., in removing tho six ice piers off Port Ponn, which
were built by the English lxifore the revolution, have
made a remarkable find The ion piers had bocomo
dangerous obstructions to navigation, as tho upir xr
tions had crumbled away and tho trctclii-roiix huso were
hiddou by tho water. During the Wring up of the
timber of thmto old piers the dredgers found tho hull of
an old vessel. In removing this hull thorn wero found
some barrels of flaxseed in an excllout state of preserva
tion, the grain still retaining erfoct germs. The burn-Is
were plainly but rudely marked iu burned letters: Samuel
W. Flintham nnd Ijaiulxtrt A Company. Thorn has been
a tradition at Port Ponn nud Delaware City that seventy,
nine years lx fi.ro the Revolution vessel was cut through
by the ice frehet This is uppod to be the old LulL