Captain’s Adventure + 

Three years ago my vessel lay + 

In a port of Hudson Bay, + 

I started off for the trading post, + 

But on the way back I then got lost. + 

And the thought soon gave me the blues, + 

Trudging along on my snow shoes, + 

Over the wastes of drifting snow, + 

While the wind it did fiercely blow. + 

I feared that I would be froze hard, + 

For it was a fearful blizzard, + 

I was growing faint and weary, + 

Not the slightest hopes to cheer me. + 

Without compass to bearing, + 

My yells were beyond crews’ hearing, + 

But at last to my loud halloo + 

There came a mournful ho, ho. + 

From creature white I thought ’twas ghost, + 

And that I was forever lost, + 

I heard horrid creature flutter, + 

As it those strange sounds did utter. + 

At last I found that all this howl + 

Was from a noble large white owl, + 

And a happy apparition, + 

So runs the Indian tradition. + 

It guides the lost one in distress + 

And leads him out of wilderness, + 

This strange bird I soon follow, + 

And it still kept up its halloo. + 

It seem’d that it cried to cheer me, + 

I thought the ship was now near me, + 

As I walked o’er the banks of snow + 

I kept up a feeble halloo. + 

And but a little ways beyond + 

From my own crew I got respond, + 

With joy I was received by crew, + 

So happy all at my rescue. + 

It must be that some gentle soul + 

Did then inhabit that strange fowl, + 

But O to me ’twas wondrous fair, + 

For it thus saved me from despair. + 

The man’s my foe who now doth growl + 

At the strange sounds made by the owl, + 

The sailors all they took delight + 

To feed this bird so pure and white. + 

But soon the poor bird was o’erfed, + 

Early one morn we found it dead, + 

And my breast it heaved with sighs, + 

And the tears poured from mine eyes. + 

But precious relic in glass case + 

I oft gaze on its kindly face, + 

And grateful memories it brings, + 

When I behold its glorious wings. + 

To stuff such birds I knew the art + 

On it I worked with my whole heart, + 

To preserve each grace and feature + 

Full of charms to me is creature. + 