Oii SABLE ISLAND. 9 



At tliis early period we find no particular aeeonut of the island. The earliest we have 

 found is by De Laet in his "Xovus Orbis," published in 1633, which may be held as repre- 

 senting the reports received of it in the yeai's previous. " Farthermore," he says, " the 

 island of Sabla (so called by the French from its sands) is situated in 44 degrees north lati- 

 tude, about thirty leagues from the island of the Bretons, or of 8t. Lawrence, toward the 

 south. It is about fifteen leagues (over forty miles) in circuit, much longer than it is broad, 

 the sea surrounding it being shallow and without harbours, and having a bad repute for 

 shipwrecks." . . . "There is but one snuxll pond, Init no springs of water, in the island, 

 many thickets of bushes, very few trees, the soil naked or but slightly covered with grass, 

 and the landing is difficult." 



The position here assigned to the island is pretty nearly correct, but the author must 

 have been in error as to its dimensions. In describing it as having a circuit of a little over 

 forty miles he represents it as scarcely as large then as it is at present. But, from the 

 rapidity with which it is wasting away, it is evident that in those earl^- times it must have 

 l)een much larger. From actual measurements it is proved that since the end of the 

 eighteenth century it has diminished from forty miles in length and two and a lialf in 

 breadth, to twenty miles in length by one in breadth. It is also certain that the hills have 

 diminished from two hundred feet to eighty in height. But as the wasting had been going 

 on long previous to that date, it must in the early times have been much larger. Mr. S. D. 

 McDonald, from the rate of disintegration going on in the observed period, calculates that 

 three hundred years ago the island would have been two hundred miles long and the hills 

 upon it eight hundred feet high. 



Ilis estimate may be too large, but there cannot be a doubt that in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury it must have been much larger than it is at present. From its position, surrounded by 

 water and on the edge of the gulf stream, its climate must have been milder and more 

 equable than that of the mainland. Snow does not lie upon it and the frost is not severe. 

 De Laet represents it as having thickets of bushes and a few trees. There is nothing of the 

 kind now, and it would be interesting to know whether he was correctly informed on this 

 point or not. The island being so much larger and the hills so mucli higlier, it might have 

 aflbrded a shelter under which bushes or trees might have grown. At all events the soil of 

 peaty mould, which must have been then more extensive than, owing to the encroachment 

 of the sand, it has since become, indicates that for a lengthened period it had been the site 

 of a copious vegetation. Thus, to the first comers, the island presented advantages for 

 grazing not afforded on the mainland, where nuich of the land was rocky and barren, and 

 where what was fertile was covered with wood to the water's edge. These circumstances 

 will account for the fact of parties placing their cattle upon it, if not with a view to perman- 

 ent settlement, at least for temporary occupation. 



Mr. McDonald also supposes that at that time it contained a convenient harbour. Our 

 author affirms the contrary, and we believe him to be correct. At a later period the pond 

 in the centre was open to small vessels, but it was in consequence of the sea cutting a passage 

 to it through the ridge of sand which separates it from the ocean. But there is nothing at 

 this early period to indicate anything of the kind. 



De Laet tells us that even at this early period the island was in bad repute for ship- 

 French gardens, said to have been the work of La Roclie's convicts. Tlie work is older tlian tlie present estab- 

 lishment on the island, and the tradition may be well founded. 



Sec. II., 1894. 2. 



