CAETIEE'S COURSE. 163 



but, as usual, it is the writers who are wrong, because having fixed on Cape St. Gregory 

 (between Bonne Bay and Bay of Islands) to their own satisfaction as Cap Royal, the esti- 

 mate is of course very much out, but if they will please accept Bear Head as Cap Royal, then 

 all will be correct. The actual distance is seventy miles, which would be something like 

 thirty of Cartier's leagues. This Cape St. John or Jehan is not, as I remarked. Cape 

 Anguille, but a cape some miles to the northeast of it ; and, curiously enough, on some old 

 French charts it is marked " St. Jean, aujourdhuy C. Double." This is really a double 

 entendre. Cartier gave the name Cape Double to a certain point and Cape St. John to 

 another. By and by some person confounded the two, and called his Cape Double by the 

 name of Cape St. John, then comes another and calls his Cape St. John by the name of Cape 

 Double ! ' 



They could not approach the land at Cape St. John on account of bad weather, so they 

 sailed off and on, in a west-northwest direction, against a head wind, during the day, until 

 they were about seventeen and a-half leagues distant, according to estimate, from Cape St. 

 John. Starting from this point, and sailing fifteen leagues south-southwest, he sighted the 

 Bird Rocks. The estimate here is a good deal below the mark, but it is not to be wondered 

 at, considering the weather and the bufteting which he got. The position of the Bird 

 Rocks is a known quantity, sixty-five miles north-northwest from St. Paul's Island, which 

 places them in lat. 47° 50' , long, (west from Greenwich) 61° 15' . Hence if Cartier was 

 fifteen leagues (say thirty-five miles) to the north-northeast of them, he would be in lat. 

 48° 20' , long. 61 ' 10' , a position which is about eighty miles from Cajie St. John, so that 

 he was some thirty leagues distant, instead of seventeen and a-half as he estimated. 



His description of the 



Bird Rocks, 



which he calls Isles des Margeaulx, is very exact and very interesting. He says there are 

 three isles, two small ones, very steep and perpendicular-like walls (acorez comme murailles) ; 

 on the northern side, as a matter of fact, the rocks are actually overhanging. A provision 

 and salvage depot has been established here by the Canadian Government. A crane has 

 been placed on the top of this cliff by which provisions, and persons even, are hoisted up. 

 The south side is a little more accessible, and a sort of zigzag stair has been erected. There 

 is between the two rocks a small forillon. This word means a narrow passage between the 

 two rocks scarcely wide enough for a boat to pass through. Our people call it a " push 

 through." It is probably derived from the Latin forare, to bore. It is a translation of the 

 Indian word gaspè, which, according to Abbé Maurault, means, " Séparément, qui est séparé 

 de l'autre terre. * * Miné par la violence des vagues." It is this channel which causes 

 Cartier to say there were three islands. The " St. Lawrence Pilot" thus describes them: 

 "The two rocks bear from each other N.N.W. J W. and S.S.E. J E., and are seven cables 

 apart. The south-easternmost is the largest and highest, though scarcely two cables long, 

 and not more than 140 feet high. The other is divided into two precipitous mounds joined 

 together by a low ledge (this is the forillon). The lesser of the mounds resembles a tower." 

 (Bayfield, " St. Lawrence Pilot," vol. i., p. 40.) 



' By aiiother mistake, many years after, this name St. John was transferred from the coast of Newfoundland 

 to the island now called Prince Edward. 



