32 



THE MAGDALENE ISLANDS — PATTERSON. 



the outlying- islets), while from the shore the ice extends for 

 miles, sometimes in level fields, at other times piled in irregular 

 masses. This presents one of the principal inconveniences of the 

 inhabitants. For nearly five months of the year they are shut 

 out from all intercourse with the world except by telegraph. 



On approaching the islands from any direction the first ap- 

 pearance they present is that of a range of rounded hills. As 

 we draw nearer the outline becomes more distinct. They are 

 generally hunnnocky in shape, sometimes forming sharp cones, 

 at others being rounded or flattened on top, or somewhat of a 

 beehive shape. Approaching still closer, we see steep cliffs of 

 red, grey, or brown freestone, and pleased with their variety of 

 hue and shape, we may be impressed almost to awe by their 

 grandeur as we realize their height of one, two, three, or in one 

 instance, four hundred feet, while at their feet the waves beat 

 with ceaseless roar and untiring energy. Then, first as a dim 

 haze on the horizon, but afterward more distinctly, the voyager 

 may trace some sand beach (one is twenty-two miles long), with 

 its dunes of blown sand, forty, sixty, and sometimes, I thought, 

 a hundred feet high. Finally, as one draws near the land, there 

 are seen on the slopes of the hills, toward the shore, clusters of 

 small white cottaofes, with other buildinps, forming- the centre of 

 a fishing industry. These buildings are not placed so close to- 

 gether as to form a village, as that term is understood among us, 

 but they are nearer than is usual in our farming settlements. 



Wherever a voyager lands, his attention will be arrested 

 by the various appliances for conducting the fishery — stages 

 for drying fish, and a vat for trying out seal blubber, perhaps 

 nets spread out to dry, lobster traps, with many sights, and, we 

 must add, smells, which we must pass over for the present. 



But leave the shore, and almost anj^where the beauty of the 

 scenery will arrest attention. If the day is line, ascend to higher 

 ground, and at almost an}^ point you can scarcely fail to behold 

 a scene, in the contemplation of which, if you are a lover of 

 nature, you will for the time fairl}' revel, and of which you will 

 carry away delighted remembrances. Before you, and from some 

 positions on either side, stretches the mighty ocean, its surface 



