ON CAPE BRETON. 309 



spruce, but none are of the best quality. ' Then we enter a little river where shallops go and catch salmon. Here 

 we see a coal mine, and I am told plaister ' is also abundant, but I have not found it. The wood in this river is 

 good and the land is not mountainous. From the mouth of this small river to the entrance of the little passage of 

 Campseaux, on the north side, there is only a distance of three leagues, and thence to the other entrance on the 

 south side, about ten leagues, where I commenced the voyage, and now end it after having made the circuit of the 

 island. The total distance around is generally given at eighty leagues; both the coast and the interior are remark- 

 able for their rockv and mountainous character, but the fine bays and harbours which vessels can frequent with 

 safetv u'ive tlie island great value for carrying on the fisheries. Mackerel and herring are abundant around tlio 

 coa.st, and fis-hermen c'an iind plenty of bait for catching codfish, which are very |)lentiful. Cape Breton has also 

 been famous for moose, which were found in great quantities, but at present there are none,- as the savages have 

 destroved them all, and have mostly ahandone.d the island since it does not give them suftlcient game to live on. 

 I do not mean to sav tliat there is not still in the island various kinds of game in abundance, but tliero are not the 

 kinds the Indians prefer. Besides it costs them too much for powder and lead, for with tlie one shot with which 

 they can bring down a large animal like a mcjose they will only kill a bustard or two, sometimes three, and these 

 are'not sufficient to satisfy the gross appetite of themselves and families. 



IX. Frbnxh Sources of Information on C.\pe Breton and Louisiîourg. 



We lind an interesting description of the fisheries, resources and natural features of Cape Breton in the work 

 published by Nicholas Denys, who was made governor and lieutenant-general of the French king " throughout tlie 

 country, territory, coasts and borders of the great bay of St. Lawrence from Cape Canceau up to Cape Rosier?, 

 Newfoundland, Cape Breton, St. John and other adjacent islands, in order to re-establish our dominion." After 

 his failure to sustain his rights in this wide territory, he devoted the close of his life to describe the country where 

 he had lived for about forty years. This book bears the elaborate title, " Description Géographique et Historique 

 des Costes de l'Amérique Septentrionale, avec l'Histoire Naturelle du Pais. Par Monsieur Denys, Gouverneur, 

 Lieutenant-Général pour le Roy, et propriétaire de toutes les Terres et Isles qui sont depuis le Cap du Campseaux 

 jusque au Cap des Rosiers. Tome I. A Paris, chez Louis Billaine, au second pillier de la Grand' Salle du Palais, 

 à la Palme et au grand César. 1G72. lOmo., pp. 267." The second volume is entitled : " Histoire Naturelle des 

 Peuples, des Animaux, des Arbres et Plantes de l'Amérique Septentrionale, et de ses divers Climates. Avec une 

 description exacte de la Pesche des Molues, tant sur le Grand Banc qu'a la Coste, et de tout de ce qui s'y pratique 

 de plus particulier, etc. Par Monsieur Denys, Gouverneur, Lieutenant-Général pour le Roy, & Propriétaire de 

 Toutes les Terres à Isles qui sont depuis le Cap de Campseaux jusqiies au Cap des Roziers. Tome second. A 

 Paris, chez Louis Billaine, au second pillier de la Grand' Salle du Palais, à la Palme et au Grand César. 1672. 

 16mo., pp. 480." 



This work is exceedingly rare and costly even in an imperfect form. A copy with the original map and two 

 plates, which appear always in the second volume, and which Harrisse (Nos. 136, 137) could not find in any of the 

 copies he examined, is put at 900 francs in Dufossé's Catalogue (Paris) No. .51,038. Another, with admirable /ac- 

 aimiles of the original map and figures (in the possession of the present writer), cost 300 francs. Another (No. 

 51,039), with mf&Tior facdmiles and two leaves in manuscript, is given at 150 francs. The same dealer oflers fac- 

 gimiks on old paper of the map and the illustrations simply— the latter relating to the codfisheries— at 25 francs. 

 The copy in the library of the Canadian parliament is without the map- Harvard library has two copies— one 

 with the imprint "Chez Louis Barbin," but without the original map; and also has a Dutch version of 1683. It 

 seems Denys ceded his rights to both Billaine and Barbin (see " Extrait du Privilege du Roy " at end of first 

 volume). Copies are also found in the library of Congress and in the Carter-Brown collection (see '• Nar. & Crit. 

 Hist of Am.," iv. 153; "Carter-Brown Cat.," ii. 1,070; "Sabin," v. No. 19,615). Brown, in his "History of Cape 

 Breton," gives a sketch of Cape Breton and of tlie eastern coast of Acadie (p. 103), taken from Denys's map. Brown 

 says that it gives no place to Sydney harbour, though Denys describes it in the text, but it is obvious that Sydney 

 is named in the map " La E. Denys," which, in these later times, is a river in the northwestern section running 

 into the upper part of the Bras d'Or Lake. The map on the whole is accurate wherever Denys had special know- 

 ledge of the country. While his merit as a historian is doubtful, his description of the places he visited has 

 some value. Charlevoix says that " he tells nothing but what he saw himself." See " Charlevoix," ii. 195 et scq., 

 for an account of Denys, " whose departure from Cape Breton was a great misfortune for this part of New France, 

 which never had a more capable or energetic head." P. S. Hamilton has in the Toronto ' Week ' (Dec. 18, 1891) a 

 sketch of Denys's life, but he gives no new facts relative to his career, and incorrectly calls him St. Denys. 



' l>enys had a right to levy a tax on all coal and plaister found within the limits of his grant. lie may speak here of the place called. 

 Plaister Cove. The little river must be the Marguf-rite, always famous for salmon, but it is not a small stream. He was, however, ignorant 

 of this section of the isl.and and speaks only by re|>ort. His distances, it is evident, are generally mere estimates. 



- Ile refers to those parts of the island with which he was personally acquainted. It is only wiihiri half a ccnturj* or so that the moose 

 has nearly disappeared from the northern parts of the island, where, for a century and a half after I>cnys's time, it was found in great 

 number». Haliburton [" Hist, of N. S.," ii. 243] speaks of it as still inhabiting the recesses of the forest, " though in diminished numbers," 

 in 1829. 



