204 L'ANSE AUX DUNES. 



high plateau on either side, is perhaps rather remarkable, and of 

 geological interest. The peculiar name given to this place of 

 L'Anse aux Dunes, would seem appropriate were the word dunes in 

 French translated dunes in English — the word a7ise signifying a 

 small bay or cove. Here five or six men set some nine nets for 

 seal in the spring, and also catch a few salmon and cod in the 

 summer, but it is only a small station at best. Near the water the 

 beach was strewn with shells, especially of the razor-billed clam as 

 it is often called, and a variety of sea animals, while huge drifts of sea- 

 weed, like that so common in many places on the coast here and 

 on the Atlantic generally, were entangled with blocks of ice and lay 

 around from nearly one end of the beach to the other. That night 

 we spent at Blanc Sablon, having travelled a distance of twenty-five 

 miles, nearer thirty by the route we took, since leaving home in the 

 morning ; accomplishing the whole, including stops and all, in a 

 little less than ten hours. The distance would have been gone over 

 in much less time had the dogs been properly shod ; but, as 

 it was, the ice cut their feet so badly that blood flowed in nearly 

 each print in the snow or on the ice, while the poor animals were 

 quite stiff and lame the next morning. 



Of Blanc Sablon I shall say very little, as I had so little time here 

 to visit the place. On all sides of the harbor the country was one 

 mass of stratified deposit of sandstone, as is the whole plateau, as 

 I have before called it, between this place and Forteau. On the 

 western side of the harbor the deposit is much broken, numerous 

 hill-like elevations and broken ridges cover the surface everywhere 

 on the tops of which a scattered vegetation flourishes ; on the east- 

 ern side the deposit forms a ridge that extends for some distance in 

 a north and northeasterly direction. For a mile or so in a north- 

 erly direction the water, retreating, has left the hollow occupied 

 formerly by the sea so perfect that but little imagination is required 

 to trace the former outline of the harbor. With the place itself 

 I was much pleased. It is a busy looking station, and from its 

 geographical position, large size, and importance as a fishing locality, 

 it is often called the Boston of Labrador, It contains perhaps a 



