DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 369 



quarter miles to the south-west. Portage Island is four miles long, in a 

 south-west by south direction ; narrow, low, and partially wooded with small 

 spruce trees, and bushes. The ship channel, between this island and Fox 

 Island, is one and a half miles wide. 



Fox Island, three and three quarters miles long, in a S.S.E. direction, Is 

 narrow and partially wooded; like Portage Island, it is formed of parallel 

 ranges of sand hills, which contain imbedded drift timber, and have evidently 

 been thrown up by the sea, in the course of ages. These islands are merely 

 sand-bars on a large scale, and nowhere rise higher than fifty feet above the 

 sea. They are incapable of agricultural cultivation, but yet they abound in 

 plants, and shrubs, suited to such a locality and in wild fruits, such as the 

 blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry. Wild fowl of various kinds are also 

 plentiful in their season ; and so also are salmon, which are taken in nets and 

 weirs, along the beaches outside the island, as well as in the gullies. 



The next, and last, of these islands, is Huckleberry Island, which is nearly 

 one and a half miles long, in a south-east direction. Fox Gulley, between 

 Huckleberry and Fox Islands, is about 150 fathoms wide at high water, and 

 from 2 to 2 fathoms deep, but there is a bar outside, with 7 feet at low water. 

 Huckleberry Gulley, between the island of the same name and the mainland, 

 is about 200 fathoms wide; but it is not quite so deep as Fox Gallery. They are 

 both only fit for boats, or very small craft ; and the channels leading from them 

 to the westward, up a bay of the main within Huckleberry Island, or across 

 to the French River and village, are narrow and intricate, between flats of 

 sand, mud, and eel-grass, and with only water enough for boats. Six and a 

 quarter miles from the Huckleberry Gulley, along the low shore of the main- 

 laud, in an E.S.E E. direction, brings us to the beacon at Point Escumenac, 

 and completes the circuit of the bay. 



The Bar of Miramichi commences from the south-east end of Portage Island, 

 and extends across the main entrance, and parallel to Fox Island, nearly 

 six miles in a south-east by south direction. It consists of sand, and has 

 not more than a foot or two of water over it, in some parts, at low spring tides. 



He also says pp. 37, and 39 : 



The Inner Bay of Miramichi is of great extent, being about thirteen miles 

 long, from its entrance at Fox Island, to Sheldrake Island (where the river 

 may properly be said to commence), and seven or eight miles wide. The depth 

 of water across the; bay is sufficient for the largest vessels that can cross the 

 inner bar, being 2J fathoms at low water, in ordinary spring tides, with muddy 

 bottom. 



Sheldrake Island lies off Napan Point, at the distance of rather more than 

 three-quarters of a mile, and bears from Point Cheval, north-west by west one 

 and three quarters of a mile. Shallow water extends far off this island, in 

 every direction, westward to Bartibogue Island, and eastward to Oak Point. It 

 also sweeps round to the south and southeast, so as to leave only a very narrow 

 channel between it, and the shoal, which fills Napan Bay, and trending away 

 to the eastward past Point Cheval, forms the Middle Ground already mentioned. 

 Murdoch Spit, and Murdoch Point, are two sandy points, a third of a mile 

 apart, with a cove between them, and about a mile W.S.W. of Sheldrake Island 

 The entrance of Miramichi River is three-quarters of a mile wide, between 

 these points and Moody Point, which has a small Indian church upon it, and is 

 the east point of entrance of Bartibogue Kiver, a mile north-west by west half 

 west from Sheldrake Island. 



220 But a strong, and I may add, a conclusive point, in showing 

 the passage between Fox and Portage Island, to be the main 

 entrance, or mouth of the Miramichi, is the peculiar action of the 

 tides. It is thus described by Bayfield, p. 35 : 



The stream of the tides is not strong in the open bay, outside the bar of 

 Miramichi. The flood draws in towards the entrance as into a funnel, coming 

 both from the north-east and south-east, alongshore from Tabusintac, as well 

 as from Point Escumenac. It sets fairly through the ship channel, at the 

 rate of about 1* knots, at the Black buoy, increasing to 2, or 2 knots, in 

 strong spring tides between Portage and Fox Islands, where it is strongest. 

 The principal part of the stream continues to flow westward,- in the direction 

 of the buoys of the Horse-shoe, although some part of it flows to the north- 

 ward, between that shoal and Portage Island. 



92909 S. Doc. 870. (Jl-3, vol 4 34 



