201 



GEOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS. 



Account qfthe Islands in Passamaquoddy Bay.* 



CrRAKD Manan, ot Great Mary Island, is situated in the Bay of Fundy, 

 between the Grand Passage and the Bay of Passamaquoddy. On the northern 

 side the shore is straight, bold, and ahiiost inaccessible to any landing, but on 

 the southern side the shore is indented into several small bays and coves, and 

 rendered of easy access and safe landing by a chain of outer islands, about four- 

 teen in number, which afford various shelter, and sufficient harbours for fishing, 

 boats and small craft. The principal is called Grand Harbour, about the middle 

 of the island, where vessels of about one hundred tons burden may lie in perfect 

 safety : the water is too shoal (being not more than six or eight feet at low water) 

 for vessels of a larger burden. At Seal Cove, near the southern end of the island, 

 is a good road for vessels of any burden, and close in with Inner Two Islands, at 

 Hardwood Cove, is a good harbour, and a smooth level beach to land on. The 

 approach to this side of the island by navigators is thought dangerous, on ac- 

 count of the rapidity of the tides, and some reefs which extend towards the; 

 Grand Passage, to the distance of ten or fourteen miles ; but the fishing here for 

 cod and herring is generally good and productive, especially in the winter. 

 There are several ponds, and large tracts of barren heaths interspersed through 

 the JNIaid and Outer Islands. The wood land, when cultivated, is found to pro- 

 duce crops of grass, grain, and vegetables, equal to those of the other parts of the 

 country. Cattle and sheep thrive well, especially on the Outer Islands, some of 

 which are partly, and others wholly free from the growth of any kind of wood, in 

 which situations cattle soon fatten for beef. The sheep will live through the win. 

 ter without food from the stall or barn. There are no foxes, bears, snakes, or 

 toads. A pair of moose deer were placed on the island by the first settlers in 

 1784, which would soon increase to a considerable number, could they be pre- 

 served from the depredations of interlopers. Among the minerals on the island, 

 copper ore containing some silver has been found, and lapis lazuli is said to have 

 been found on some of the adjacent ledges. The island is supposed to have been 

 granted to Lord William Campbell when governor of Nova Scotia ; there was, 

 however, no settlement made on it till the year 1784. 



On the 6th INIay 1784, Messrs. Jones, Ross, and Gerrish, took possession of 

 the island by virtue of a license of occupation, and brought on with them two 

 other families, besides labourers and cattle. It appears to have been the constant 

 practice of the licensees to encourage the improvement, cultivation, and settle- 

 ment of the islands, in the same manner that they would have done provided they 

 had had a regular title to them, having now introduced between fifty and sixty 

 families, and furnished them with lots of land. Lots were at first given to any 

 settler that offered by way of probation during seven years, at the expiration of 

 which, such as continued on the lots were to be confirmed in their title, and such 

 as might abandon their settlements before the expiration of that period, were 



• We are indebted to our friend, Robert Fowlis, Esq. of St. John's, (New 

 Brunswick,) for these notes on the islands of Grand Manan. They are situ- 

 ated at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy^ and immediately off the boundary 

 line limiting the British possessions in North America, aud the territory of 

 the United States. Their geognostic structure, which appears to be chiefly 

 constituted b>^ crystalline rocks, (granite, gneiss, clayslate, and beds of seiyen- 

 tine and steatite,) is unfavourable in an agricultural point of view, but of im- 

 portance when we consider their situation as affording harbours for our ships, 

 and outposts for any forces defending that line of country, for both which pur- 

 poses they seem partially fitted ; while the presence of numerous streams, and 

 extensive alluvial deposits, renders the soil more tractable than was at first ex- 

 pected. Ed. 



VOL. II. 2 C 



