Read The Curse of the Labrador Duck Online
Authors: Glen Chilton
The Curse of the Labrador Duck (39 page)
Every writer should be so lucky as to have an agent like Rick Broadhead. My dear friends Pat and Jackie Walsh polished the burrs of the first draft. My editors Jim Gifford, Kerri Kolen, Franscois McHardy, and the rest of the crews at HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster were endlessly patient in guiding me through this publishing
adventure. Jan Dohner put me on to Charles Darwin’s use of the term
Labrador Duck
. Alexandra Mazzitelli found details of Audubon’s original
Pied Duck
painting. Michael Duggan set me straight on Jacques Cartier’s claims about God’s opinion of Labrador. Mike Sorenson was a star in the genetics laboratory. Terry McLaughlin graciously filled the void on a rough day in Elmira. Captain Randall Sherman chatted happily about Theodore. Margot Morris set aside some precious eggs after a tough winter.
I speak only English, and even that is pretty shaky. Many colleagues have helped me by translating letters and documents, including Julie Rainard, Matthias Amrein, Antoine Sassine, and Samuel Schürch. Andrew Geggie provided endless help in answering my silly questions about the historical use of Canadian place-names.
Many friendships have been forged along the path to the Labrador Duck, and I am grateful for the support and wisdom of these new friends, including Chris Cokinos, Barbara and Richard Mearns, and Errol Fuller. My travel companions on these journeys have included Kathleen Chilton, Errol Fuller, Georgina Brown-Branch, Julie Rainard, Sarah Shima, Jane Caldwell, and my dear, dear wife, Lisa.
The Curse of the Labrador Duck
Copyright © 2009 by Glen Chilton, Ph.D.
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EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40394-8
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
First Canadian edition
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www.harpercollins.ca
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Chilton, Glen, 1958–
The curse of the Labrador duck : my obsessive quest to the edge of extinction / Glen Chilton.
1. Chilton, Glen, 1958—Travel. 2. Labrador duck. 3. Voyages around the world. I. Title.
QL696.A52C473 2009A 910.4 C2009-903100-0
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It took Andrew Geggie, a toponymist at Natural Resources Canada, to point out the link between the two communities. Geggie was also able to correct me when I tried to use my elementary-school French lessons to translate Bras d’Or into “arm of gold.” Somehow I had missed the rather obvious link between the names
Bras d’Or
and
Labrador
. Geggie explained that the name of the region was originally applied to coastal Greenland early in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese explorer João Fernandes, who was a landowner and cultivator in the Azores. “Cultivator” apparently translated into Portugese as “Llavrador.” João used his title of cultivator as a surname, and felt the need to apply it to anything that he discovered, even though he didn’t actually discover Greenland.
*
I should make clear that this offer comes from me alone and not from my publishers or anyone else involved in bringing you this book. For more information, and for the full terms and conditions of the reward, visit my website, www.glenchilton.com.
