30 EEV. GEORGE PATTERSON 



is brought to the ground. Then loosing the rope to prevent his choking altogether, they 

 hitch a rope round his jaw in the form know as a bonaparte. The animals do not attempt 

 to jump the inclosure, and it is seldom that the_y are vicious. They generallj' submit quietly 

 and are led or dragged to the shore. It is great fun for the youngsters to have the first ride 

 on a wild horse. They may be thrown, but as their fall will be on the sand, thej' fear no 

 hurt. At the shore the animals' legs being tied they are put into a boat, and afterwards 

 hoisted into the vessel and lowered into the hold. 



Some winters the men spent a good deal of their time in sawing up the timber cast 

 upon the island or splitting it into shingles. Thus he records on one occasion : " All hands 

 overhauling and measuring lumber, and find that we have sawed since the 15th December 

 eight thousand five hundred and forty-eight feet merchantable, and one thousand two 

 hundred and nine of refuse boards, also one hundred and twenty-one fence rails, sixty-lour 

 posts, and made eleven thousand shingles and one thousand pickets." Then there are 

 the numberless small jobs suited for indoor work, necessarily connected with such an 

 establishment. 



As the winter is passing away comes the hunting the seal, followed by the trying out 

 the oil, though this business has never been very extensive. Then comes the shooting of 

 wild fowl, and a little later collecting their eggs. 



Incidents occur out of the ordinary to vary the monotony of their life. Thus on two 

 occasions he mentions the fact of a whale coming ashore. In the first case it was stranded 

 within half a mile of the principal station. After they had taken three cartloads of blubber 

 from it the sea carried oflf the remainder of the carcass, which again came ashore at another 

 point, when they again commenced securing the blubber. A second time it was carried off 

 by the sea and again bi-ought back, when they were able to take off all the blubber that 

 remained. The second was not secured. 



Then attention is arrested by vessels passing, some stopping to communicate with the 

 shore, or approaching it unconscious of danger, as appears from such entries as the 

 following: "The man that went eastward reports having seen a fore-and-aft schooner 

 nearly on shore, the sea breaking outside of her." "J. C. says that he had seen a brig 

 among the breakers on the northeast bar, that after crossing the bar, on which he thinks 

 she must have struck, she stood to the northward." 



One of the events which serves best to relieve the monotony of their lives is the arrival 

 of the vessel with supplies. In the year 1851 the government had a vessel built for their 

 own purposes, called the " Daring." She was employed principally for the protection of the 

 fisheries, but part of her business was to keep up communication with Sable island. 

 Though the men being fully employed did not usually feel the time tedious, and were 

 generally satisfied with the quiet of their situation ; it was at least an agreeable change to be 

 again lirought into communication with the outside world, to receive messages of love from 

 dear ones left behind, or tidings of the changes which have occurred in private circles or in 

 public affairs during, it may be, the months that have elapsed since last they held intercourse 

 with any outside their isle. At times she brought visitors, whose company served to enliven 

 the loneliness of their situation. Sometimes, however, the weather was such as to render 

 landing so difficult and dangerous, that she sometimes returned without communicating 

 except by signal. Thus he writes on one occasion: "After answering her inquiries by 

 signal, that a boat could not get ofi"— that we were all well and had no wrecks — were not 



