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a ramshackle operation and not quite as Siebert had described. He has firmly told me there will not be enough money to pay the men and improve the facilities, so I am sticking to just being able to pay the men. I am hoping to sink a new shaft this week. Mostly though it’s an open pit.
    The plan is to have 2,000 tons of fluorspar on the wharf by this spring. We will ship it to Dominion Steel and Coal Company (DOSCO) in Sydney, Nova Scotia. If it meets their standards then we have a going concern. The ore in Black Duck is very high grade with up to 95% calcium fluoride and very few contaminants.
    Right now it’s more like a deep sewer trench than a mine. The water problem is acute. I can see that going any deeper at the Black Duck will be difficult. The motors that Siebert sent with me are helping for now but we have had to repair the main one twice already to stay ahead of the flow. I have ordered good pumps and pipe to come to Saint Pierre, where the lack of tariff makes them affordable.
    I am heading over there in a couple of days and will have more to report then. I will check out the market for wrought-iron products as you asked.
    For any packages you want to send, address them to me in care of M. A. Maufroy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon. That should do it. We are heading over principally for dynamite and hope to pick up a ton to bring back. The boat is also taking over about twenty empty boxes that will come back labelled 40% dynamite, but will carry everything from truck springs to false teeth.
    I would like to get a good supply of gas from Saint Pierre but that doesn’t look possible. All our gas here comes from the Imperial Oil Company of Canada who has a ten year monopoly. I swear they’re shipping all their junk here because we get at least three gallons of water in fifty gallons of gas. We have a problem keeping the gas lines from freezing tight so that adds to our woes.
    I took a trip up the coast the other day in an open boat to see the original discovery stake that was placed there years ago. From the water you could see the wide vein of fluorspar glistening in the sun and I could see why it attracted attention. I’ve never seen so many ducks in my life and then just ahead of our boat were “jumpers”—porpoises to you. All in all it was one spectacular day on the water.
    Good luck with the squirrels in the attic. Here there are no attics and no squirrels, so we have left behind some problems at least.
    As ever,
Donald
    St. Lawrence, Newfoundland
    November 22, 1933
    Dear Dorothy,
    Mother and Daddy have passed along your news and I am so thrilled for you and Bill. I know you have always wanted a house full of children so hats off to you for getting started! I am sure Bill is excited to get another little Scotsman into the Mutch clan. Daddy, too, of course, and I’m sure he’s secretly praying for a boy to offset his life of girls.
    It is impossible not to think of children in a town like this. I have never seen so many youngsters in all my life. Right in our own boarding house there are four adorable ones that keep us all busy and entertained. Don and I both have lots of fun with them. Blanche is the youngest at three and I’ve never seen a healthier child given what’s available to eat here. Walter is six and a real boy who waits for Don to come home every day to be thrown around like a football. Leonis (yes that’s a girl’s name) is quite bashful, but I hope to do some sewing with her if we can ever get Siebert to send us a machine. Alfred, at eleven, is quite an artist and a very likable boy. Completing the picture is Mrs. G, who is very progressive and intelligent. Mr. G is the most industrious man, for his small size, I have ever seen.
    This is also the smallest family in the community! I have learned that small families generally mean that children have died in childbirth or at a young age. Certainly there are small crosses, lots of them, in the cemetery. The town still bustles with children in