CAETOGEAPHY TO CHAMPLAIlSr. 51 



Europe, had few or uo data other than these gireu them by Cartier. They could but alter 

 aud conftise his topography and nomenclature, they could not improve them. So the 

 errors aud imperfections of Cartier's first surveys remained until they vpere corrected or 

 improved by Champlain. In view of these facts then, it does not seem too much to say 

 that Cartier's voyages, and particularly his first, are the key to the cartography of the 

 Gulffor the remainder of the century. 



APPENDIX I. 



The History op Certain Geographical Names. 



The following geographical names, occurring in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are connected with the 

 foregoing subject : — 



Canada. — A bibliography of the discussion on the origin of this name is given in Winsoi-'s 

 " America," Vol. IV, p. 6*7, and some additional references in Taylor's "Names and Places " p. 400. 

 There cannot bo much doubt that the interpretation usually given is the correct one. It is worthy of 

 note that the name appears on the Henri II map (given before, p. 31) in three distinct places. 



Cape Breton. — Undoubtedly the oldest French name on the Canadian east coast. It appears on 

 maps anterior to Cartier's voyage, both as Cape Breton, applied to a single cape on the island, and as 

 Land of the Bretms, placed on the mainland. The island itself was not clearly distinguished until the 

 time of Champlain.' It has borne the names of Bacculau, Isle St. Lawrence and Isle Boyale. 



Anticosti. — The history of this word is given by Eev. E. Slafter, in a note in Otis's "Translation 

 of Champlain" (Prince Society, Boston), Vol. I, p. 233, and by Dr. N. E. Dionne, in his "Etudes 

 Historiques " (Quebec, 1880), pp. 69 and 70. Eev. Eugene Vetromile, in " The Abnakis " (New York, 

 1866), says the name means " open fields, that is, opened by being burned," but this writer's state- 

 ments must be taken with great caution. Thevct said, in 1586, that the savages called it Naticousti. 

 This was corrupted to Antiscoty on one of Champlain's maps, and thence to Anticosti. De Laet, in 

 1640, called it Xatiscotec. Ferland in his '■ Canada," and Dionne in " Etudes Historiques," state that 

 the Montagnais call it Natashhoueh or Nataskoueh, which means, " lieu où l'on va chercher l'ours." 

 Cartier called it Assumption, so naming it on August 15th, 1535. Alletbnsce calls it, by mistake, 

 Ascention. 



Cape Eat. — It seems quite probable that this name is a corrupted survival of Cartier's Cape 

 Royal, the present Cape Gregory. Its Spanish equivalent is Gape Real, and in this form it appears 

 upon many early maps. In the Henri II map, for instance, the only map of the sixteenth century 



' Captain Southack, who made a survey of the north and east American coast at the end of the seventeenth or 

 early part of the eighteenth century, claims in an inscription on his map, published about 1730-33, that he was the 

 tirst white man who ever went through tlie Strait of Canso. Tliis is clearly an error, as the strait is distinctly 

 shown on Lescarbot's map of 1609 and all later ones. It may liave been put in on tlie authority of the Indians, but 

 such is quite unlikely. 



