THE MAGDALENE ISLANDS — PATTERSON. 35 



their cattle, or on which they pasture them in summer. Other 

 portions at present cannot be reclaimed or rendered tillable, but 

 yield large quantities of berries, particularly cranberries, which 

 are quite an article of export. 



From the situation of these islands, as described, it will be 

 seen that they are right in the track of the trade of the Gulf 

 and the River St. Lawrence, and from their structure as now 

 indicated, but in addition from currents unexpectedly encoun- 

 tered, and of which the causes are scarcely understood, they 

 have been noted as the scene of shipwrecks. Even vessels going 

 by the Straits of Belle Isle have been driven upon thein, while 

 those on board imagined themselves at quite a safe dist3.nce. If 

 Sable Island has been known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, 

 with equal, if not greater propriety, may the Magdalenes be 

 called the Graveyard of the St. Lawrence. Not only have such 

 sad events been more numerous ; they have, as a general rule, 

 been more destructive of human life. On Sable Island, as I am 

 informed by one who resided on it for seven years, vessels when 

 they strike usually become embedded in the sand, and generally 

 do not break up for two or three days, so that if those on board 

 would remain they might escape, when by attempting to leave 

 they are lost. But at the Magdalenes, vessels may strike upon 

 the rocks and rapidly go to pieces, or may strike on a reef at 

 some distance from the shore, and after being battered upon it, 

 be carried over it to be engulfed in deep water, while in either 

 cases, a few fragments driven to land may be all that remains to 

 tell the tale. Often have vessels left Quebec in the fall and 

 some wreckage found on these shores give the only hint ever 

 received of their fate. 



They also often prove fatal to the small vessels of the inhabi- 

 tants or that are engaged in fishing or trading among them. In 

 rough weather the sea rises very quickly and the waves are 

 very dangerous, not because they are so high, but because they 

 are short and steep. As they approach the shore in huge 

 combers, owing to the shallowness of the water and the under- 

 tow, they break on the reefs which in so many places encircle it, 

 or beat upon the sand dunes or clifts with irresistible force. 



