34 EEV. GEORGE PATTERSON 



" nth. — In the afternoon the men came home from the east end, having piled up what 

 deals were on the beach, and reported having found a ship's boat on the south side and a 

 head-board with ' Plymouth ' on it. 



",30th. — At 5 p.m. got a report from the eastern station of the family there having 

 heard the report of several heavy cannon in the neighbourhood of that station at aliout 2 

 o'clock on the morning of the 27th." 



Sometimes these fragments will contain some mark to tell of the vessel to which they 

 belonged, and thus reveal her fate. On one occasion they picked up the head-board of a 

 vessel, on which some of the letters were so injured that they could not clearly make out 

 the name. The superintendent ordered it to be preserved, and some time after they read in 

 a paper of a vessel called "The Polar Star" having never been heard of after sailing. On 

 examining the head-board again it appeared plainly that that was the name upon it. 



"11th. — Sent one man to search the northwest bar, who reports having found the 

 stern of a small vessel on the south beach, with a water-cask and tiller lashed to it. 



"13th. — The superintendent, with three men, went to the piece of wreck found on 

 Saturday, and, clearing away the sand with a shovel, found 'Resolution, St. Johns, IST. F.,' 

 in yellow letters on the stern. 



" 22nd. — Searched the north lieach east and west, and found two broken barrels of 

 flour, and the forward part of a new jollyboat, cedar plank, iron-tastened and painted white. 

 She appeared to have been cut through by a vessel running foul of the one to which she 

 belonged." 



It is to be observed, however, that the tendency of the currents is not to bring such 

 wreckage ashore, but rather to carry it to sea. It is seldom, too, that bodies come ashore. 



Though the life of the residents on this island is thus of a somewhat solitary and monot- 

 onous nature, yet, being one of activity, it is not wearisome or depressing. On the contrary, 

 it has much of interest in it, and often they become attached to the island as to their home. 

 "When the superintendency is vacant there is no lack of applicants for the position, and Mr. 

 McKenna found that employés who left the island were in almost all cases desirous of 

 getting back. Children who have lived on the island, when taken away to school, have 

 had a homesick longing after the old scenes, and imagined their happiness would be perfect, 

 if they could just have a scamper over the sand on the back of a shaggy Sable island pony. 

 Fond recollections of such delights lingered in their minds amid the gayest scenes and to 

 the end of life. 



One of the most important events to the island during the superintendency of Mr. 

 McKenna was the visit of Miss Dix in 1853. In the prosecution of her lifework of founding 

 institutions for the insane she had come to Halifax and St. Johns, N". F. While at the latter 

 city, in June, there occurred a fearful storm, resulting in some appalling shipwrecks, which 

 left a deep impression upon her, and, with her practical and symjiathetic nature, induced 

 the desire to adopt some means for the safety of those exposed to such terrible gales. At 

 Halifax the gentleman who was her chief supporter in her efforts to found an asylum for 

 the insane was the Hon. Hugh Bell. By a subscription, large for his circumstances, he first 

 tapped the fountains of private liberality on its behalf. He was its earnest advocate in the 

 legislature. Through him Miss Dix carried on her correspondence regarding the project, 

 and as the chairman of the Board of "Works he had the charge of carrying it into execution. 

 But in the same capacity he had the special oversight of the establishment on Sable island. 



