ISO BISHOP HOWLEY ON 



Cartier also remarked the wonderful depth of the soundings near this said land. This 

 is a very convincing argument for those of a nautical turn of mind. The remark applies 

 most aptly to Cape Kay, where the soundings reach the abnormal depth of 253, 262, 279 and 

 289 fathoms, while those on the Cape Breton shore are comparatively shoal, averaging 48 

 to 49 fathoms. As to the great currents, those about Cape Ray are well known, but, as they 

 may also exist on the Cape Breton side, I shall not dwell upon them. But the final and 

 clinching argument, which puts Cape North out of court is the latitude. 



The latitude of Cartier's Cape Lorraine is il^ north. In the Relation Originale 

 the figures 46J° are given, but clearly by a mistake either of the printer or copyist, for to 

 the south of this cape, he immediately tells us, he saw another cape in 47J° ; therefore this 

 cape (a little to the north) was in 47p, not 46J°. This obvious clerical error is corrected in 

 Hakluyt's version, which gives, correctly, " forty-seven degrees and a half." Now, this 

 latitude is only seven minutes out, if we take Cape Lorraine for the present Cape Ray. The 

 latitude of Cape Ray is given by Lescarbot (1609) as 47"' 35' , five minutes' diflference from 

 Cartier. By Champlain (1612), 47"^ 30' , identical with Cartier. By the English Coast Pilot 

 (1755), and the Admiralty Survey maps (1755) as 47° 37', seven minutes' dilierence from 

 Cartier. This latter position has been confirmed by Captain Cook (1764), and has never 

 since been altered (J. P. Howley, F. G-. S.). Now Cape North and Cape St. Lawrence, (C. 

 Breton), are almost under the forty-seventh parallel, being precisely in 47° 3' , a difiference of 

 twenty-seven minutes from Cartier. Such an error is not made by Cartier in all his narration, 

 and cannot be by any means admitted. 



We now proceed to show how the description of the land about Cape Ray tallies with 

 Cartier's. The learned Dr. Bourinot having adopted Cape North as Cape Lorraine, naturally 

 tries to make Cartier's description fit in with the topograj^hy of the country, but I think the 

 argument is very much forced. " The low land," he says, " which Cartier saw south of 

 Cape Lorraine was probably the neck which connects Cape North with the main;" but 

 though I have been frequently at Cape North, I have not noticed any such neck. Neither are 

 there any " sandbanks or appearances of rivers " near Cape North as Cartier saw near Cape 

 Lorraine. Cartier saw these sandbanks in the immediate neighbourhood of Cape Lorraine, 

 so that the " Barrachois of Aspey Bay " suggested by Dr. Bourinot will not answer ; they are 

 some fifteen or twenty miles distant. Dr. Bourinot suj^poses (and naturally) that the cape 

 called by Cartier St. Paul's, and which was south of Cape Lorraine, is " one of the capes on 

 the east of Cape Breton ; " it maj' have been Aspé or Egmont, " or the cloud-wrapped height 

 of Cap Enfumé." But Cartier tells us his Cap St. Paul was in 47^ lat. (47- 15' ), while 

 all these points mentioned are south of the forty-seventh parallel ; Cape Smokey (Cap 

 Enfumé) being little more than 46J^'. The learned writer concludes that " tlie degrees of 

 latitude are not reconcilable with the course Cartier took." Certainly not, if we try to 

 force Cartier on a wrong course, but if we accept what he actually says, all can be recon- 

 ciled. Dr. Bourinot says that he thinks Brown was led by Lescarbot into the error (() of 

 giving Cape Ray as Cape Lorraine, but both Brown and Lescarbot were led by the unmis- 

 takable words of Cartier. This is what Brown says (p. 30) : " After leaving Bryon 

 Island he (Cartier) shaped his course to the eastward, and discovered a promontory in 47^° 

 which lie calls Cape Lorence (Cape Ray). And another to starboai'd, which he named St. 

 Paul's (Cape North, in Cape Breton)." Brown was right as to Cape Ray. But how he 

 could have made such an extraordinary statement as to say that the other cape called by 



