THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 9 
Havre aux Maison, or [louse Harbor, is the second in size 
on the islands. Here we were kindly received by Mr. J. 
Nelson Arsenault, who did all in his power to make us com- 
fortable. “Vous @tes chez vous, monsieur,” he repeatedly 
observed, after we had got quietly settled in his pretty little 
house. 
Here and at Amherst are the only places where any one 
can be comfortable. On all the rest of the islands it is 
almost impossible to sleep for the myriads of fleas and other 
insects which infest them; but here, where the heat rarely 
exceeds seventy degrees, when winter clothes are often a 
necessity even in July, and fresh milk and good food to be 
had for the asking, this quaint little village of House Harbor 
offers a splendid field to the naturalist or sportsman after a 
winter's confinement in the city. 
The Magdalens are composed of ten so-called islands, 
although they are all, with the exception of Entry Island, 
Deadman’s Island, Byron Island, and the Bird Rocks, con- 
nected by a narrow sand-beach, thirty-four miles in length, 
and extending from East Point to Amherst. 
This belt of sand is covered in many places with grass, 
