NOTES ON SABLE ISLAND—MACDONALD. 27 
would carry the dispatches to the Government, and acquaint 
them of the starving condition of those on the Island. To his 
surprise, in 13 days after she returned to the beach, six miles 
above where she set out from. 
This swirl motion around this Island is very marked. In 
calm weather an empty barrel or cask will make circuit after 
circuit of the Island, and this experiment is often resorted to for 
testing the velocity of.the current. Again, bodies from wrecks 
have often made the same circuit, and it is quite customary for 
the surfmen to search on the opposite side for things which 
in consequence of an off-shore wind, have been carried thither by 
the current, and deposited upon the beach. During the preva 
lence of stormy weather these currents become terribly conflict 
ing, and if accompanied by high tides, often remove by thei~ 
eroding action, hundreds of feet from the embankments Then 
again, danger often arises from the lowness of the shores. 
Being treeless— with the exception of the light house: 
having nothing to distinguish it from the surrounding ocean 
which it so resembles in colour—vessels have been known in a 
stiff breeze and clear weather to run directly for the Island, 
without the slightest knowledge of its proximity, until their 
attention has been arrested by the red ensign flung to the breeze 
from the flagstaff at one of the stations. Often sailing vessels 
and mail steamers are seen from the Island in positions clearly 
showing that they were unaware of its presence. 
Foos of a density seldom experienced elsewhere are pre- 
valent all the year round, and accompany all winds from N. E. 
round by south to S. W. The warm, moist air from above the 
gulf stream meeting the cold air above the polar current, is 
condensed into fog which gives but little warning of approach, 
and contributes in a marked degree to the dangerous surround- 
ings of this Island. 
Another danger arises from its proximity to the gulf stream. 
Ask the mariner where he most dreads to encounter the storm, 
and perchance he will answer on a lea shore or the northern 
edge of the gulf. 
Maury, who made a life study of the stream, says: “With 

