SITUATION OF STAGE-HEAD. 137 



the water in front of it, — an angry sea, lashing itself into foam- 

 covered patches here and there, and everywhere, as far as the 

 eye can reach. 



It is next to impossible to do justice to a tempest on these Lab- 

 rador shores. While on our own coast at home I have seen 

 presented a truly magnificent sight, when a storm sent long ridges 

 of foaming and sparkling waves, with their watery foam-bearing 

 crests towering up ten, fifteen, or even twenty feet into the air, 

 following each other with regular step, beating at length upon 

 the sandy and often rocky shore with quick splashes, that sent the 

 foaming and watery masses high up on a beach extending miles 

 in uninterrupted distance in either direction, and felt that I 

 could go home and tell of a storm at sea, and of its fierceness, 

 grandeur, and magnificence. — yet the memory of such a scene 

 is of little account in comparison to that which I shall now 

 describe, and which I not only saw and felt, but that those 

 around me who have witnessed the terrors of a tempest upon 

 these shores not only saw but felt, and which you will soon see 

 they have cause to remember. 



Bonne Esperance island, where we are at present, is a small 

 island not more than two miles in circumference. It contains two 

 small elevations, one or two small ponds of water, and is separated 

 on the north and northwest by a narrow band of water from the 

 mainland. On the western side of the island are the stage, and 

 the several buildings connected with the fishery department which 

 reach to the water's edge, extending from this backward towards the 

 path. A board walk extends up the embankment to the level above 

 where the fish flakes are spread ; back of these are sheds and 

 outhouses, while a descending slope brings you, a little to the 

 left, to the house which is nearly on a level with high tide mark in 

 front, and which looks directly out upon the waters of this little 

 bay-like inclosure, thence to the waters of the open ocean. On a 

 perfectly clear day the highlands of Newfoundland can be seen 

 fifteen miles directly east. Close in-shore the island is one mass of 

 rocks. Sometimes low, but broadly rounded tops of bowlders show 



