XXIII 

 A VISIT TO SABLE ISLAND 



THE Atlantic coast of the maritime provinces of Canada is 

 remarkable for the presence of a series of shoals or sub- 

 marine banks of enormous dimensions, composed of immense 

 accumulations of loose grey sands, the debris from melting icebergs, 

 and fragments of shells and rocks carried hither by the strong 

 drift of the arctic current. These shoals lie submerged beneath a 

 depth of water varying from thirty to seventy fathoms, and are 

 all of them famous fishing grounds because of the vast quantities 

 of animalcules which attract a teeming fish-life. Nature has 

 elsewhere provided no waters so perfect in every condition for 

 maintaining an almost inexhaustible supply of the valuable food- 

 fishes of commerce. 



Of this series of submarine beds the largest is the famous Grand 

 Bank of Newfoundland. Other well-known banks are named 

 Quero, George's, and Sable Island Bank. The two latter are 

 especially interesting to navigators, for the shoals of George's 

 Bank rise dangerously near the surface, so that in heavy weather 

 the roar of their breakers can be distinctly heard many miles distant, 

 while the Sable Island Bank is capped by a long, narrow sand-spit 

 with a ghastly history of drowned men, which has earned for itself 

 the sinister title of ' the Graveyard of the North Atlantic '. 



Sable Island, so called because it consists practically of pure 

 sand, is shaped like a bow, concave to the northward. The north and 

 south sides of the island are formed of two nearly parallel ridges of 

 hills, steep towards the sea, but sloping gradually inward. The 

 whole length of the island, following the curve and including the 

 dry parts of the bars, is twenty-three miles ; its greatest breadth 

 is one and one-fifth miles. In most parts it is wholly or partially 

 covered with grass ; but in some places the sand is scooped out 

 by the winds into crater-shaped hollows, or thrown up into hills 

 varying in height to a maximum of no feet above high-water. 

 Some of these hills are frequently changed in position by the 

 wind. Between the bordering ridges a long pond named Lake 

 \\ .ilhice, gradually filling with blown sand, but still in some parts 

 twelve feet deep, extends from near the west end to a distance 



m ^ 



