290 SQUARE ISLAND AND VICINITY. 



Leaving Fox harbor we passed Mecklenburg harbor but did 

 not enter it, as it was not of sufficient consequence ; we also 

 passed St. Frances harbor, the mouth of the Alexis River, naviga- 

 ble for about twenty miles inland, and said to present as beautiful 

 scenery as any harbor along the coast, while the intricacies of its 

 mouth being as complex as any river south of Rigoulette, and 

 steered for St. Michaels and Square Island, the next place of in- 

 terest, where we stopped over night. We anchored at the farther 

 end of the harbor, and a most beautiful and picturesque little spot 

 it was. This place is named Square Island from the large almost 

 square island which nearly blocks the entrance to the harbor. 

 We entered through a very shallow and narrow passage, crossed 

 the harbor, and were soon anchored in a sequestered little spot safe 

 from everything save those intolerable torments the blackflies and 

 mosquitoes. The houses here looked more like the nests of an 

 army of cliif swallows than anything else that I can imagine ; they 

 were perched everywhere on the high rocks close to the cHffs, and 

 looked as if glued to them, so closely did they stand ; and so near the 

 color of the rocks were the weathered boards and boughs of which 

 they were composed, while so snug was the harbor, that one might 

 have hunted for weeks for the location, did he not know it from 

 previous visitation, and then have passed it without discovering the 

 entrance passage, while high cliffs everywhere surrounded it. A 

 party went over to Nolan's harbor, a few miles distant, and met 

 Capt. Fitzgerald, of Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, who oversees 

 quite a fishery at this point ; but one place so closely resembles 

 another on this part of the coast, that the intricacies of bays, coves, 

 islands, and narrow passages of water present every possible shape, 

 size, and form of harbor. It is, in fact, like the " Bower of Fair 

 Rosamond," in which one would easily lose one's self without the 

 help of a most skilful pilot. 



On Thursday we left Square Island and sailed to Dead Island, a 

 lew miles north only of our former position, and found quite a com- 

 munity of fishermen living here. The inhabitants were chiefly sum- 



