164 BISHOP HOWLEY ON 



Cartier then describes the innumerable birds, which are as thick on the island as grass 

 ill a field. The larger kind, probably gannets, he calls Margaulx. They are " wliite and 

 hirger than a goose." Other kinds he calls Codez, Apponatz, and in another place (speaking 

 of the bird island near Blanc Sablon) he mention a species of bird which he calls Richars. 

 From his description we recognize them as what our fishermen call puffins. " They have the 

 beak and the feet red, and they breed in holes under ground." (Hairent dedans des pertuis 

 souhz terre.) 



The islands are still the habitat of the feathery tribes of the air. Bayfield (" St. Lawrence 

 Pilot") says " every ledge and fissure of the cliffs is occupied by gannets ; and the summits of 

 the rocks are literally covered with them. The white plumage of these birds gives these 

 rocks the appearance of being capped with snow, and renders them visible through a night 

 glass in a clear moonlight night from a distance of seven or eight miles. 



Cartier next came to an island about five leagues to the westward of the Bird Rocks. 

 It is about two leagues long and as many wide. He remained near it for the night (26th 

 June, Friday) in order to take in wood and water. Cartier describes with rapture this 

 beautiful island. " It is ranged round with sand hills, but a good bottom for anchorage is 

 found all around it, at six or seven fathoms. It is the best land he had yet seen, for an acre 

 of it was worth all Newfoundland" (La Terre Neufe). Of course in this remark he means 

 the Labrador of which he speaks at p. 11 in the following disparaging terms. After having 

 described all the fine harbours from Blanc Sablon to Harbour Jacques Cartier, he says : " If 

 the land were as good as the harbours it would be a great blessing ; but it ought not to be 

 called Newfoundland ( Terre Neuffue), but stones and rocks, frightful and rough (effrables et 

 mal rabattez), for in all the coasts of the north I did not see a cartload of earth, and I landed 

 in many places. I really believe that this is the land that Grod gave to Cain." Here he 

 distinctly speaks of Labrador as the Terre Neufue. He could not say anything of New- 

 foundland proper, because, as we have seen, he did not land anywhere on its shores. 



The island west of the Bird Rocks Cartier called 



L'Ile de Bryon 



in honour of Philippe de Chabot, Seigneur de Brion, Comte deBuzançois et de Charny, grand 

 admirai of France, and generous patron of the expedition. The name is preserved to the pre- 

 sent day, though very absurdly printed on some modern maps as Byron Island. "We found 

 the island," Cartier continues, "full of beautiful trees, fields and meadows of wild grain, peas 

 and fiowers, gooseberries and strawberries, Eglantines, or roses of Provence, and other 

 shrubs of beautiful odour." He also saw some immense beasts, as large as oxen, with two 

 tusks in their snouts (walruses, which formerly were very numerous on these islands). 

 They saw also bears (probably white) and foxes. This description is borne out by the " St. 

 Lawrence Pilot." 



Here Cartier makes a very significant and important remark : " I am pretty well con- 

 vinced {Je jyresume mielx que aultrement) from what I have seen that there is a passage 

 between the Newfoundland and the land of the Bretons. If such be the case, it would be a 

 very great shortening of the route {i.e., to Cathay) if anything of value should come out of 

 this exploration." Cartier was doubtless led to this belief by not seeing any land away to 

 the south ; but particularly, no doubt, though he does not say so, by the strong current 

 setting in that direction, a fact most certain not to escape his shrewd attention. But from 



