THE MAGDALENE ISLANDS — PATTERSON. 43 



tent has been nearly severed froia the rest of the island, and is 

 known as Devil's Island. 



Ascend to the top of the highest hill and the prospect is one 

 of rare beauty. Southward you gaze upon the ocean, and in the 

 distance you can in suitable weather discern St. Paul's Island 

 and Cape North, in Cape Breton, fifty miles away. To your 

 right and left are the red and gre}' clifts of the neighbouring- 

 islands, while at your feet to the south-west the island slopes 

 away to the sea, forming beautiful meadows or fertile fields, 

 yielding rich crops of potatoes, grass or grain, rendered still 

 more picturesque bj" bits of woodland intermixed. 



There are ten families on the island. With its rich soil they 

 enjoy to the full the ordinary comforts of life, and without 

 excessive toil. One sees in proportion to its size abundance of 

 live stock, troops of their ponies, droves of pigs wandering at 

 their sweet will, flocks of sheep sometimes grazing on the tops 

 of the highest hills, and plentiful herds of cattle. But beside 

 farminp-, fishino- and lobster cannino- are carried on. There is 

 no harbor on the island, and it is onl}^ at certain places that 

 boats can land, and in stormy weather all intercourse with it is 

 cut ofi". 



There is a passage on either side. That to the north-east is 

 seven miles wide and separates it from Alright Island, that on 

 the south-west is three miles wide and separates it from a sand 

 beach four miles along, known as Sandy Hook, which makes out 

 from the south-east point of Amherst Island. Inside you are in 

 a beautiful bay nine miles wide, known as Pleasant Bay. In 

 summer it dos not belie its name. Its water appeared to me of 

 a lighter greenish hue, and more pellucid than we see in the 

 waters around our Nova Scotia shores. This bay forms a safe 

 -and commodious roadstead, except in easterly winds, and there 

 are many pleasant sights around. But it, too, has its tales of sor- 

 row. A gentleman told me that he has seen a fine ship leave in 

 full sail one morning, and before the next day had passed, she 

 was lost with all on board on the back of Sandy Hook l)each. 



The steamer weekly visiting these islands, first calls at Amherst, 

 wliich is the largest island of the group. It was so called after 



