ON CAPE BEETON. 307 



Desbarats, well known in Canada for his encouragement of literary enterprise, too often without adequate reward. 

 There is a perfect copy of the voyage of 1603 in the imperial library at Paris, and the edition of 1613 (Paris, Jean 

 Berjon) is so rare that there are only ten copies in Canada, and of these the one in the library of the University of 

 Laval is alono perfect, since it contains the great map, and the two imprints of the small map. Abbé Laverdière 

 says (preface, iii) he himself paid 500 frs. at Paris for a copy. Quaritch prices one (No. 75), which has only a fac- 

 simile of the large map and is otherwise imperfect, at £16. The edition of 1032 (Paris, Claude Collet) is priced by 

 him at £52.10 (No. 752), and another with a new title page at £50 (No. 754). Dufossé prices two copies in his 

 possession— one of 1620 (Paris, Claude Collet) at 1000 frs. ; the other of 1632 at 450 frs. (Nos. 40974 and 40075). The 

 Prince society of Boston published in 1S78-80 a small edition of 250 copies, translated by Ch. Pomeroy Otis, with a 

 memoir by Rev E. F. Slafter. The parliamentary library at Ottawa has copies of the edition of 1613, Jean Berjon, 

 4to. ; of 1627, Claude Collet, 12mo. ; of 1632, Em. Souvestre, 4to. ; of 1610 in 4to., Claude Collet, same as that of 

 1632 with only a fresh title ; of 1830, in Quebec, 2 vols. 8vo. — which is not reliable, as it was printed hastily to make 

 work for printers — and the Laverdicre ed. of 1870. The Abbe's notes give great value to the Quebec edition, whose 

 only defect is the very brittle pajier on which the maps are given, and the somewhat inferior artistic character of 

 the illustrations in some cases compared with the originals. The " Nar. and Crit. Hist of Am." (iv. 119) gives 

 Champlain's autograph and portrait from the Hamel painting after an old engraving by Moncornet. Suite in " His- 

 toire des Canadiens Français" vol. i, has another portrait, not very well executed, evidently from Roujat's woodcut. 

 The portrait in the parliamentary buildings (speaker's chambers) at Ottawa is by Hamel, a copy from Moncornet. 

 For bibliography of Champlain see an article by Mr. Slafter, author of the memoir in the Prince edition, in "Nar. 

 and Crit. Hist, of Am." iv. 130-134. 



(5.) Translation from Nicolas Denys's " Description des C'ostes de l'Amérique Septentrionale,'" vol. i, c. vi, which 

 gives a description of the island of Cape Breton, its ports, harbours, rivers and adjacent islands, the nature 

 of its land, its varieties of wood, its iisheries, hunting and all that it contains. 



I return - to the island of Cape Breton before proceeding further. It is situated at a distance of ten leagues 

 from Cape Campseaux ; is eighty leagues in circumference, including the island of Ste. Marie,'' which is contiguous 

 to it, and so situated that it forms two passages. One of tliese passages between the island and the mainland is 

 called the entrance of the little strait of Campseaux, of which I have spoken above,' and the other is a space of six 

 leagues between it and the island of Cape Breton, by which one can go from the liitle strait of Campseaux to Fort 

 St. Pierre. The voyage can be made only by boats or small vessels, but care must be taken in tlie channel of the 

 little strait. Proceeding along the shores of the island of Ste. Marie we tind outside, three leagues away, a little 

 round island named Isle Verte," and to re.ich there you must keep olf to sea. The coast is lined with rocks which 

 stretch well into the sea for a league, and on which a good many vessels have been lost. It is necessary to leave 

 this island to the light to enter the bay of St. Pierre, where we can anchor some little distance otf a point of sand. 

 Ships cannot approach closer to St- Pierre than at a distance of three leagues, but small vessels can come nearer, 

 though it is necessary to know the winding channel, besides the situation of many rocks which do notshow them- 

 selves. The fort is built at the foot of a mountain, almost perpendicular, and it is ditficult to climb this coast. 

 There we find on the top a pond which is fed by several springs. The high land declines towards Labrador for 

 eight or nine hundred paces of distance, and on the other side of the entrance descends for about live hundred 

 paces to a little bay or creek where a river flows, and many small fish," like a gudgeon, of excellent flavour, are 

 caught in winter. On the top of the mountain there is excellent land and a number of fine trees. It is here I made 

 a clearing, and had eighty acres of land in cultivation every year before the occurrence of the fire which hurned 

 me out. 



The stretch of land at the foot of the mountain, where the fort is situated, is more than ten leagues long, but 

 there are no t'ees there except spruce, and the land is not worth much until we come to a little river, where we 

 find good land and a s.ilnion fishery, besides some wild meadows. It is not diflicult to carry goods towards the 

 Labrador, which is an expanse of sea cutting the island of Cape Breton in two, except fur the eiglit hundred paces 

 or so of land which stretches from the Fort St. Pierre to the foot of the sea of Lahrador, which forms a kind of gulf, 

 with its entrance on the east of the island and its termination in the direction of the fort. I have made a road in 

 this space'' to bring my shallops from one sea to the other, and to avoid the circuit which would have to be made 

 by water. The tide comes up to the bottom of the gulf, of which the length is twenty leagues from its entrance to 

 within eight hundred paces of the fort, where it ends. AVhen it is full tide in Labrador it is low water on the other 

 side opposite the fort. Tlie opening of this little sea of Labrador is at tlie east, exactly on the opposite side. The 

 reason for the difference in. tide is the fact that the bay of St. Pierre has its mouth directly on the west, added to 

 the circumstance that it is never high tide in a harbour that tlie moon is not directly facing the entrance of the 

 harbour, either above or below the horizon. In Labrador there is a great basin or lake of eight leagues in length 

 and five in width, with little bays or creeks on each side, wliich stretch into the lantl. All around Labrador there 



' See infra, App. IX, for a reference to Denys's " Work on America." 



'- The previous cliapters of the work had been devoted to a description of Aeadic, and after liis .iccount of Cape Breton in the present 

 chapter he goes on to refer to the country on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ijaie des Chaleurs, etc. 



■■ Isle Madame. His description of the various localities, it will be seen in this chapter, are very vague. His knowledge of the island 

 wixs chieliy confined to St. Peter's, the Labrador and St, Anne. 



< He had just described the coast of eastern Acadie from Campseau.^i to beyond Ântigonishc, which he calls Articougneschc. 



■■' Now called St- Peter's Island, 



'' Probably smelts, 



" St. Peter's isthmus now cut by a sîiip canal. 



