8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Breton landfall, says that in June and July navigation all round New- 

 foundland and the Gulf of 8t. Lawrence is impeded by fogs, icebergs and 

 undercurrents ; therefore Cabot could not have reached Cape Breton at 

 the time stated. Addressing Canadians, it is not necessary to waste time 

 on this astonishing error ; but the more Avonderful part of it is that 

 therefore Mr. Harrisse thinks that northern Labrador was the landfall, 

 as if, while the St. Lawrence was blocked, that coast was free from ice at 

 that season, whereas, while the ports of Quebec and Montreal are crowded 

 with ocean vessels, there is there a procession of icebergs and field-ice 

 1.000 miles long coming down the Arctic current from the north. This 

 is so well known here that in 1886 the Minister of Marine did not send 

 sailing instructions to Capt. Gordon until June 22nd, and the steamship 

 "Alert" did not leave Halifax for Labrador until June 24th. He re- 

 ported*^ that the season was unusually early. He left Blanc Sablon, in 

 the Strait of Belle Isle, on the 29th of June, and steamed along the coast. 

 On the 30th he met large numbers of small icebergs ; on July 1st he 

 passed a number of large bergs, one being 170 feet high. On July 2nd 

 he got into field-ice, and had to lie on the outer edge of it until the 

 weather cleared. On that day he saw many more bergs, some very close 

 to the ship. He was then sixty miles south of Cape Mugford, north of 

 which point Mr. Harrisse places Cabot's land fall in 1497. He found there 

 heavy field-ice, which extended all along the coast to Cape Chidley, packed 

 tight for fifteen miles off the shore, with a '■ bordage " of slack ice ten miles 

 further out. That was an early season, and it was July 2nd ; but John 

 Cabot told Eainiondo di Soncino that "the land he found was excellent, 

 " and the climate temperate, suggesting that brazil wood and silk grow 

 " there," and that on June 24th. 



Mr. Harrisse has not distinguished sufficiently between the two voy- 

 ages," and makes 1497 to be the year of the long coasting voyage, but so 

 little does he realize what the coast of Labrador is, that in order to get Cabot 

 back in London on the 10th of August (where he, in fact, was), he thinks 

 the landfall must have been earlier. That is to say, this landfall, impos- 

 sible on the 2nd of July in an exceptionally early season, he thinks was 

 made much earlier than June 24th ; and if, as he supposes, Cabot made 

 in 1497 the long coasting voyage to Florida, his landfall must indeed 

 have been very much earlier than June 24th, because, beyond all cavil, 

 he was present in Loudon on August 10th, 1497.'" 



Among the causes which Mr. Harrisse assigns as contributing to 

 delay Cabot's progress is the supposed fact that "in those days, particu- 

 " larly when coasting in unknown regions, anchor was cast at sundown, 

 " and .sailing renewed again only with daylight the next morning." The 

 impossibility of a vessel coasting along northern Labrador and anchoring 

 out ever}'^ night on a coast where field-ice and enormous bergs are sweep- 

 ing down with the Arctic current, is evident. No doubt vessels have to 



