38 THT-: MAGDALENE ISLANDS — PATTERSON. 



industry, retunKnl lioiiie with tlie produce of their lalior. And 

 the islands seem to have reverted to the French government, for 

 Charlevoix states that in 1719 the king, at the instance of the 

 Duchess of Orleans, ceded them to the Compte de St. Pierre. 



The first settlement is said to have heen made in the year 

 1757 by four families named Boudreault, Chaisson, LaPierre and 

 Cormier, who came from St. Peter's Bay in Prince Edward 

 Island. 



In the year 1763 the islands passed with the rest of New 

 France under the British government. At that time the}^ were 

 said to have had l:)ut ten families resident upon them, who were 

 enp-ap-ed in walrus and seal huntinp-, and to a small extent in the 

 herring and cod fishery. Al)Out this time Mr. Gridley, described 

 in one place as an English retired officer, in another as an Ameri- 

 can skipper, formed an estal)lishment at Amherst Island for the 

 purposes of trading, and especially of carrying on upon a large 

 scale the hunting of the walrus and the seal. He encouraged 

 others of the Acadians to remove hither, so that the population 

 received a number of accessions from this source, and their 

 descendants now form the large majority of the inhabitants, and 

 retain the language, habits and religion of the parent country- 

 But it may be observed that, though they have always been 

 under the government of the Province of Canada or Quebec, 

 their associations are all ^itli their brethren in the maritime 

 provinces. 



At this time the hunting of the walrus was considered as 

 second in importance only to tliat of the whale. The oil brought 

 a good price, the skin was valued as forming an exceedingly 

 tough leather, and the tusks were of the very best ivory. 

 McGregor in his history of British America says : " These animals 

 are fond of beinsf in herds, and their affection for each other is 

 very apparent. The form of the body and of the head, with the 

 exception of the nose being broader, and having two tusks from 

 fifteen inches to two feet long in tlie lower jaw, is not very unlike 

 that of a seal. A full grown walrus A\'ill weigh at least 4,000 

 pounds. The skins are valuable, 1)eing about an inch in thick- 

 ness, astonishingl}^ tough, and the Acadian Frencli used to cut 



