242 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



I would refer the reader to Appendix D, where I give, not my own 

 account, but the testimony of a catena of authors far removed in time 

 and space from this controversy. I would, moreover, observe that, as 

 the whole northern promontory of the island is equally elevated above 

 the sea, there seems very little difference in the conditions of a landfall on 

 the Atlantic at the foot of Cape Enfumé, 950 feet high, or at the foot 

 of Mount Squirrel, in the gulf, 1,220 feet high. It is exactly on the far 

 side of the same tableland. The landfall I have suggested as that indi- 

 cated by Sebastian Cabot is a low rocky point, within tive miles of which 

 the land is fertile continuously to where the beautiful harbour of Sydney 

 opens up, and beyond where the mouths of the Bras d'Or permit ships to 

 sail into the nearest approach to a summer paradise which this continent 

 attbrds. From the point of Cape Breton to the commencement of the 

 high table-land is a stretch of sixty miles, along which the interior car- 

 boniferous basin of the island opens upon the Atlantic in numerous capes, 

 harbours and inlets plainly visible in a map on the smallest scale. 



That it should have occurred to any one to suggest a discovery of 

 America from the inside of a landlocked gulf like the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence is one of the strangest things in this remarkable controversy. Not 

 only is it landlocked, but, at Cabot strait, and for a long distance, as the 

 shores of Cape Breton and Kewfoundland approach, the land on both 

 sides is exceedingly high and bold. The height of these coasts is easily 

 seen upon the Admiralty charts and the Geological Survey maps. Com- 

 mencing at Cape Dauphin, ^vhere the northern promontory of Cape 

 Breton begins, in a distance of 45 miles to Cape North are Cape Dauphin, 

 1,045 feet ; St. Anne's mountain, 1,025 feet ; Cape Enfumé, 950 feet, and 

 in rear, the Sugar Loaf, 1,218 high ; and a little further away is Cape 

 North, 1,000 feet high. Turning westwards through the strait is Cape 

 St. Lawrence, eight miles oïï and 1,000 feet high. The coast then turns 

 south and a succession of capes follow, from 950 to 1,130 feet high, until 

 at 35 miles distance from Cape St. Lawrence is Mount Squirrel, l,22ii feet 

 high. The simple fact is that all this north extension of the island is a 

 tableland, of which the outer edge is from 800 to 1,200 feet above the 

 Atlantic on the east and the gulf on the west. It is everj'where visible 

 from sea at a distance of forty miles. 



The south coast of Newfoundland is bold, also. Table mountain, three 

 miles in rear of Cape Eay,i8 1,700 feet high. The cape is a very remark- 

 able headland and is visible at a distance of 50 miles. While the strait is 

 nearly UO miles wide, St. Paul's island divides the distance. It is 14 miles 

 from Cape North to St. Paul's island, and 42 miles from St. Paul's i.<land 

 to Cape Bay on the coast of Newfoundland. St. Paul's is 500 feet high 

 and is visible for 30 miles from sea. For the purpose of this argument 

 Cabot strait is, therefore, not more than 42 marine miles wide, and Cape 

 Eay is visible all the way across. The time of the voyage was midsum- 

 meV, when the weather is good and the nights are very short, and while 

 the fog sweeps up from the south and frequently hides St. Pierre and 

 Cape Race, the pilot charts for June show no probability of fog in Cabot 

 strait at the western end of Newfoundland, and, in fact, there is very 

 little fog in that region. 



I have given the height of land from the Admiralty charts, and the 

 well known laws of visibility from sea prove that the ranges of visibility of 

 two coasts so high as these greatly overlap the mid-channel of a strait 42 

 miles wide. Therefore it is plainly impossible that a vessel, even if she 



