OFF ANTICOSTI — QUEBEC. 279 



day morning the 24th, we shook the reefs from our sails, and in 

 the evening were anchored off Natashquan. A boat carried off 

 the mail and returned with the up mail, and we were again mov- 

 ing. By evening of the next day we were off Anticosti Island, this 

 scene of so many mournful wrecks and disasters. 



The sailors about this part of the coast say that the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence ends and the mouth of the river begins just off the west- 

 ern end of this Island. Most writers make the dividing part at the 

 bend farther up the river ; which is right is not a point for us to 

 settle. Off Anticosti the nearest land is Mingan, which has been 

 so fully described. On the south shore its nearest point is Cape 

 Gaspe. The island itself is about one hundred and twenty miles 

 long by thirty wide. It is well wooded in portions of its surface, 

 though it is generally barren and uninhabited save by a few bears 

 and other wild animals. Very little and very poor water can be 

 found upon it, while the two government lighthouses upon either 

 extremity alone represent the life of the island. Indians occasionally 

 hunt for bears and procure birch bark for their canoes along its 

 shores and in its interior. Upon its southern side are dangerous 

 reefs. Heavy gales occur frequently near by, and many are the 

 tales of horror told of wreck and disaster upon its coast, but I 

 hasten on. On Wednesday evening, the 31st, a gale struck us. 

 Fierce and heavy it blew. Sharp thunder and lightning were followed 

 by alternate puffs of wind, cold and hot as if from the mouth of a 

 furnace. The squall fairly turned into a hurricane. Before we 

 had gone to rest the gale subsided, the dark clouds gave way, the 

 rain ceased, and the clear evening predicted a beautiful day for the 

 morrow. The morrow arrived : it found us once more at Quebec. 



