50 THE MAGDALENE ISLANDS — PATTERSON. 



to be of any iiiiportanco, tlie smaller consisting of rocks protrud- 

 ing from the sea, and the largest containing an area of only four 

 acres. They are about a mile apart and the water between them 

 is shallow, while from the North Bird a rocky shoal extends 

 about a mile farther. So that this too has been the scene of 

 shipwrecks, of which often neither person nor thing has been left 

 to tell the tale. 



About 25 years ag(3 a magnihcent iron ship of the Allan line 

 was cast away here and soon went to pieces. There is now a 

 lighthouse, however, upon the Great Bird, with fog gun, and 

 also connection by telegraj)h with the other islands and the main 

 land. The keeper, his wife, and two assistants, all Magdalene 

 Island French, are the only inhabitants of the islands, and a 

 lonely position they must have. 



After 1768 the British Government ordered a. survey of these 

 and other islands in the Gulf, under the direction of Major Hol- 

 land, appointed Surveyor-General of the northern district of the 

 B. N. A. Provinces. The service was entrusted to Lieutenant F. 

 Haviland, and as the result of his work, Mr. H. sent a description 

 of the islands to the British Government in 1798, at the time of 

 the granting of them to Coffin. In this report they are estima- 

 ted as containino- (30,000 acres. One-seventh beinp- reserved for 

 the support of the clergy, Coffiin's Island as containing about 

 that proportion of the whole was set apart for that object. 



The area, as thus stated, however, was less than the reality; 

 for, by the survey of Mr. Desbarres in 1778, and the later of 

 Lieutenant Collins in 1833, it was reckoned at 78,000. But the 

 resident agent of the proprietors informed me that it was really 

 100,000. 



Returning to notice the natural history of these islands, I may 

 say that the only mineral known to be in sufficient quantities to 

 be of economic importance is the gypsum, which lies along the 

 base of the Trappean hills which serve as the nucleus of the prin- 

 cipal islands, and forms a considerable extent of the sea cliffs. On 

 land it may be traced by the number of funnel or cup-like de- 

 pressions formed by the solvent action of the water penetrating 

 the fissures. Some of these are drv, others contain water, in 



