ABRAHAM GESNER REVIEW OF HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK. 39' 



The following may be taken as an instance : 



" It is impossible to conceive a more interesting sight than 

 is presented in the Bay [of Fundy] during the summer season. 

 Boats and vessels becalmed and carried away by the tide are at 

 one instant hidden by the blackened rock, or the green foliage 

 of some little island. At another they glide from behind the 

 curtain, and appear, struggling with the overwhelming current. 

 Often several hundreds of boats, huddled together and practising 

 a deadly deception on the haddock and cod, from a signal given 

 bv the tide, draw up their anchors and hasten to the shore. 

 The silence of evening is broken by the sound of the Indian's 

 gun, levelled with deadly aim as the rising porpoise. The hollow 

 sound of the "loon's" note is discordant with the scream of the 

 gull. Here the glassy surface of the water is broken by a shoal 

 of herring : yonder the spouting grampus is blowing up the spray 

 in preparation for another dive. * * * -j'j^g ^^^ ^^ alive with 

 fish, its surface with human beings, and the air with feathered 

 tribes." 



Speaking of the shore between Beaver Harbor and Red 

 Head, on the coast of the Bay of Fundy, he says : 



" This part of the coast has a very gloomy and forbidden 

 appearance ; lofty precipices — shelving and overhanging cliffs — 

 rise abruptly from the sea, and being inaccessible at almost 

 everv point, offer no way of escape for the unfortunate traveller 

 who might be landed beneath them. There are also deep caves 

 and wide chasms, where but a few rays of light ever entei-, and 

 no sound can be heard but the murmurings of the sea, ever 

 washing their deepest vaults. That these openings were formed 

 by earthquakes there can be no doubt, as the walls on either 

 side clearly show that they were once united. The examination 

 of such places is not free from danger on account of the violence 

 of the waves, and the detached pieces of rocks, constantly fall- 

 ing from the cliffs above." 



From Dr. Gesner's narrative we may judge that he met with 

 many obstacles to his progress, due to the wild and unsettled 

 condition of large tracts of the country, and to the imperfect 

 means of communication. Of his journey on the St. Croix and 

 Eel rivers, along the western boundary of the province (see- 

 sketch-plan of his journeys facing the title-page), he says : 



" Having procured three expert Indians with canoes, and 

 being accompanied by my son and Mr. Charles Ketchura, a vol- 

 unteer — with a sufficient quantity of provisions and the requi- 



