MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES CAST UP ON BEACH. 205 



gun and hook and line need never starve in the summer- 

 time here ; but in winter I can well imagine that not a 

 living thing is to be seen for days and weeks together. 



" The climate of Anticosti, so far as frost and snow are 

 concerned, is not more severe than that of Quebec ; but 

 the summer is rather later. The bulk of the snow goes in 

 May, but on the 12th of June there was still some left in 

 ravines and under rocks. That particular day I have 

 reason to remember. It was so bitterly cold that I was 

 glad to let down the ear-flaps of my old hunting cap, and, 

 crossing a river in pursuit of a wounded bear, I got wet to 

 the middle in snow water, and then sat shivering in a 

 canoe for four weary hours. There must be days in winter, 

 when the nor'-wester howls over this icy region, that no 

 man could live on the open. On the 1st of July, or 

 perhaps a little earlier, the hot weather commences, and 

 with it come the flies, which I shall have to notice by- 

 and-by. 



" The debris along high-water mark is astonishing. The 

 variety of things, both floatable and unfloatable, that find 

 their way to this beach is quite incredible. Almost 

 everything that is lost in the river St. Lawrence and its 

 lakes finds its way here, and every ship wrecked in the 

 Gulf contributes towards it. In a five-mile walk along the 

 beach I noted the following articles: 1. Parts of the 

 wrecks of several ships, some embedded in the sand, 

 others high and dry ; 2. Sugar canes ; 3. Carcases of 

 seals ; 4. Do. of a whale ; 5. Ship's boat, in tolerable 

 repair ; 6. Sticks cut by beaver (there are no beaver on 

 the island) ; 7. Iron handspike ; 8. Child's boat (perhaps 

 lost in Montreal, perhaps in Toronto. The owner little 



