BLANC SABLON IN SPRING. 239 



CHAPTER XV. 



''■OF' THE v^^>\ 



Blanc Sablon again — Northern limits of the bittern — Return along the coast 

 of Natashquan — Spring scene in Red Bay — Other places — St. Mary 

 islands — Cormorants — At Natashquan — Ramble about the place — 

 Appearance of the birds — The Dark Day — Arrival at Mingan. 



At Blanc Sablon we anchored for the rest of the day and night. 

 I landed, and walked along the beach to examine the general struc- 

 ture of the place, and found the prospect much more pleasant than 

 it had been in the winter. I caught sight, for a moment only, of a 

 small sparrow, which, I distinctly saw had a black cheek and face. 

 The bird was about the size of a chipping sparrow, and yet I dis- 

 tinctly noticed a large black patch either on the cheek or chin, 

 which I could not tell certainly, as he hopped past me into the 

 rushes beyond the sandy beach, and thence flew quickly to the 

 other side of the creek. Here, also, I found a person who in- 

 formed me that, a short time previous, one of the men had shot " in 

 the marshes a bird with a long neck, long bill, and long legs." 

 The American bittern i^Botaurus niino)'^ is probably not rare here, 

 being in fact the only bird of the family which we know as venturing 

 so far north as this region, and undoubtedly this was the bird re- 

 ferred to. 



In the afternoon I took a short walk around the shore. I crossed 

 a shallow streamlet that, flowing through a rather wide bed of sand 

 and small pebbles alternating with patches of muck, of which ma- 

 terial neighboring lands are largely composed, empties into the salt 

 water at the head of the bay. The beach here I found to consist of 

 yellowish white sand. 



Leaving this sandy beach we next came to a beach of rocks and 

 debris from a sandstone ridge close by. After passing several 



