It was decided that the expedition must start home on Wednesday, the 2nd, and that a relief party should be left for Cary and Cole.  With heavy hearts the final preparations were made, and many were the looks cast at the narrows where they would be seen, were they to heave in sight.

At last, about 3.30 p.m.  Tuesday, the lookout yelled, “Sail ho! in the narrows,” and we all jumped for the rigging.  They had come, almost at the last hour of our waiting, and with a feeling of relief such as we shall seldom again experience we welcomed them aboard and heard their story.

* * * * *

Onboard the Julia A. Decker,
Gut of canso.

Bowdoin pluck has overcome Bowdoin luck, and though they literally had to pass through fire and water, the Bowdoin men, from the Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labrador have done what Oxford failed to do, and what was declared well nigh impossible by those best acquainted with the circumstances and presumably best judges of the matter.  Austin Cary and Dennis Cole, Bowdoin ’87 and ’88, respectively, have proven themselves worthy to be ranked as explorers, and have demonstrated anew that energy and endurance are not wanting in college graduates of this generation.

A trip up a large and swift river, totally unknown to maps in its upper portions, for three hundred miles, equal to the distance from Brunswick, Me., to New York City, in open fifteen feet boats, is of itself an achievement worthy of remark.  But when to this is added the discovery of Bowdoin Canon, one of the most remarkable features of North America, the settlement of the mystery of the Grand Falls, and the bringing to light of a navigable waterway extending for an unbroken ninety miles, and three hundred miles in the interior of an hitherto unknown country, something more than remark is merited.

July 26th the schooner hove to about four miles from the mouth of the Grand River, the shoals rendering a nearer approach dangerous, and the boats of the river detachment were sent over the side, taken in tow by the yawl, and the start made on what proved the most eventful part of the Labrador expedition.  Cheers and good wishes followed the three boats till out of hearing, and then the Julia gathered way and headed for North West River, while the party in the yawl with the two Rushtons in tow put forth their best efforts to reach the mouth of the river and a lee before the approaching squall should strike them.

The squall came first, and as it blew heavily directly out of the river, we could simply lay to and wait for it to blow over.  Then a calm followed and by the time the next squall struck we were in a comparative lee.  After the heaviest of it had passed, the Grand River boys clambered into their boats and with a hearty “good by” pulled away for the opening close at hand.  The yawl meantime had grounded on one of the shoals, but pushing off and carefully dodging the boulders that dot those shallow waters, she squared away for North West River, following around the shore, and with the aid of a fresh breeze reached the schooner shortly after 10 o’clock P.M.