BLANC SABLON AND VICINITY. 205 



hundred buildings on both sides the harbor and the adjoining 

 islands, of which I shall speak presently, and some three hundred 

 inhabitants, increased to twice that number in the summer and fish- 

 ing season. The "large room," as it is called, contains an abundance 

 of articles for sale or trade in exchange for furs, fish, and other 

 articles used as a fair medium of exchange, at their current price 

 either in trade or cash. The stock is owned by merchants from the 

 isle of Jersey in the English channel — whence a great number of 

 people come who live on this coast — and now in charge of a smart, 

 gentlemanly clerk already some eight years in the companies' em- 

 ployment though still in his teens. The fishery connected with 

 this same firm, employing some ten men in winter, and eighty in 

 summer, is perhaps the largest in the place, and no wonder this 

 young fellow clerk who oversees the whole is called the young 

 master, while he still holds his position and retains the confidence 

 of his employers as well as his employes. The two important islands, 

 just outside the harbor, are Wood (Vile au Bois as it is usually 

 called) and Greenley Islands. The former contains several fishing 

 establishments, and another shop where various articles are bought 

 and sold, and is the larger of the two being about two miles long, of 

 triangular shape, with the apex pointing northwest, and a base about 

 a mile wide facing southeast ; the latter the light island, where the 

 lighthouse is situated, one of the only two upon the coast from 

 Point des Monts in the river St. Lawrence, eastward. It lies west 

 and a very little south of Wood island, and is scarcely three-quarters 

 of a mile either long or wide. To give a little, perhaps rather dry 

 detail, I find the light described in the report of the Canadian 

 government, somewhat as follows : ''light upon the S. W. part of the 

 island, latitude, 51° 22' 35", longitude (west of Greenwich), 57° 

 10' 50". Single light, revolving white for -], then red -j, then white 

 again ^, blank i^ minutes (three minutes for full revolution). The 

 tower octagonal, wooden with dwelling attached, 100 feet high, the 

 light visible fifteen miles. It is an established light of the second 

 order, and a fog gun is fired every half hour." 



Taking a good rest at the house of the friendly people with whom 



