[s. H. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 231 



" sive lake surrounded by well-wooded hills, and is justly named Grand 

 " Mira by the people." I have been particular in describing this point, be- 

 cause an attempt has been made to apply to the whole island the physical 

 peculiarities of this rocky point, exposed to the full sweep of the ocean, 

 much as if one should argue concerning the fertility of Spain from the 

 specimens presented at Gibraltar, Cape St. Vincent or Finisterre. The 

 quotations I have given are from old authors or from writers not inter- 

 ested in this controvei-sy. It is not me my critics are contradicting ; it is 

 Charlevoix, Eacqueville, Haliburton, Brown, all of whom are dead ; it is 

 Charles Dudley \Yarner, who is a well-known living United States writer ; 

 and only the last sentence just ])receding, in inverted commas, is by a 

 living Canadian, Dr. Bourinot, who was born within twenty miles of the 

 valley of Mira river. It is of no avail to say the point of Cape Breton 

 and Scatari are rocky. Every promontory projecting into a wide and 

 stormy ocean must be rocky or sandy. It was not the point Cabot wrote 

 about ; it was the general character of the country around. 



