28 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxn. 



Seven Islands Bay is about six miles long, two and a 

 half wide at its entrance, and is nearly land-locked by the 

 islands and a bold peninsula at its western extremity, 

 rising 737 feet above the sea ; the bottom is of clay, and 

 without shoals, so that this beautiful bay forms one of the 

 best and most sheltered anchorages on the north shore of 

 the Gulf. 



From the east point of the bay a broad shelving sandy 

 beach extends to the river, where the mission chapel is 

 situated, and where the building of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's post still remains. From the deck of our 

 schooner the two parallel ranges of mountains which add 

 so much to the beauty of the distant scenery of this bay 

 look hke huge and impenetrable barriers between the 

 coast and the howhng wilderness beyond them. The 

 summits of the nearest range are 1,300 feet, and those of 

 the more distant upwards of 1,700 feet above the sea.* 

 Between the bay and the mountains there is a con- 

 siderable extent of lowland, probably underlaid by lime- 

 stone, for a hmestone reef exists near one of the islands, 

 and doubtless extends far towards Anticosti. 



The Seven Islands, beautiful at a distance, seem on a 

 nearer view hopelessly rugged and barren. The summit 

 of the largest is 700 feet above the sea, and two others 

 rise 500 and 457 feet above the same level. So bold are 

 these island rocks, and so suddenly do some of them rise 

 from the sea, that there is no anchorage to be found close 

 to them on the seaward side. They are mountain peaks, 

 starting suddenly from the ocean — giant outlooks, from 



• Bayfield. 



