80 THE LABRADOR PEXINSULA. chap. xxv. 



the climate of Anticosti. But, taking into view the known 

 fact that large bodies of water are more difficult to heat than 

 large surfaces of land, I should be inclined to suppose that 

 Anticosti would not be so cold in winter, nor so hot in summer, 

 as districts that are more inland and more south ; and that it 

 would not compare unfavourably with any part of the country 

 between it and Quebec, While autumn frosts would take effect 

 later at Anticosti, the spring would probably be a little earlier 

 at Quebec. 



But such is the condition of the island at present that not a 

 yard of the soil has been turned up by a permanent settler ; and 

 it is the case that about a million of acres of good land, at the 

 very entrance from the ocean to the province, are left to lie 

 waste, while great expenses are incurred to carry settlers to the 

 most distant parts of the west. Taken in connection with the 

 fisheries, and the improvement in the navigation of the St. 

 Lawrence, it appears to me that the establishment of an agri- 

 cultural population in the island would not only be a profit to 

 the settlers themselves, but a great advantage to the province at 

 large. 



The sceneiy in Anticosti is tame, but there are parts of 

 the coast where magnificent cliffs face tire sea, 300 and 

 400 feet high. As no point of the interior is estimated 

 to be more than 700 feet above the ocean, mountain 

 scenery does not exist, but the headlands on the north 

 coast are very picturesque, and, being composed of 

 limestone,* often present most imposing outlines. In 

 Fox Bay, near the east point, is the wreck of the ship 

 Granicus, which occurred, as already mentioned, in 

 November 1828, before provision posts were estabhshed. 



* Lower and Middle Silm-ian, Caradoc formation. ' The Anticosti group 

 consisting of beds of Passage from tlie Lower to tlie LTpper Silurian, and 

 supposed to be synclironous with the Oneida Conglomerate, the Medina 

 sandstone, and the Clinton group of the New York survey, and with the 

 Caradoc formation of England.' — Billings, Geological Survey of Canada. 



