GEOGRAPHICAL DATA. 665 



country inland is of moderate elevation, thickly wooded where not 

 cultivated, and has several ponds. 



Isthmus lay [Lat. 48 33' 00" N., Long. 58 42' 30" W.] is the in- 

 dentation in the coast just south westward of Table mountain. It is 

 about 1 miles across and mile deep. The soundings in the bay in- 

 crease gradually from the shore to 6 fathoms, stone and gravel bot- 

 tom, and though frequently used as an anchorage, the holding ground 

 is uncertain, and there is a heavy swell during westerly to south- 

 westerly winds. The stony beach at the head of the bay is about 50 

 yards across, and behind it is a shallow lagoon separated from East 

 bay of Port au Port by another narrow stony beach. There are 

 numerous cottages on both these beaches, as well as on the sloping 

 ground over the western side of the bay. The Episcopal church and 

 the post-office are on the eastern side, approached from the shore by 

 a road up the steep sand cliff, which terminates the slope of Table 

 mountain. 



This district is locally known as the Gravels, and the population 

 is about 100. 



Communication. Coasting steamers call at Isthmus bay occasion- 

 ally during summer, and there is a short pier on the western shore for 

 their convenience, but the postal communication is generally by road 

 to Benoit station of the Newfoundland railway, which is situated 

 about 1 miles northward of the mouth of St. George river. 



Degras is a small settlement nearly 3 miles from March point ; and 

 Grand Jardin is a similar settlement 1^ miles farther westward. The 

 inhabitants of these two places, and also those at Petit Jardin, a few 

 huts mile westward of Grand Jardin, are principally French, and 

 engaged almost entirely in fishing. 



Cape St. George [Lat.^48 28' 00" N., Long. 59 16' 00" W.]. 

 From the land 960 feet high, at 1 miles north-northwestward of the 

 village of Degras, dark wooded ridges, with occasional bare stony 

 summits, fall toward cape St. George, a short distance from which 

 the woods terminate and bare grassy slopes extend to the cliffs, which 

 on the southern side of the cape are about 50 feet high. A pyramidal 

 rock, connected with the western end of these cliffs by a low shelf, 

 shows well from the southward; close to it is a low detached rock, 

 and here the coast turns abruptly northward, rising in high perpen- 

 dicular cliffs, which at a distance of mile from the cape are 225 feet 

 high. Cape St. George is steep-to, and may be rounded closely, but 

 a swell nearly always sets on to the shore, and the tidal streams are 

 strong. 



Cape Cormorant, north-northeastward 5 miles from cape St. 

 George, is a perpendicular limestone cliff, about 700 feet high, from 

 which the land rises in a steep slope to a somewhat conical summit 

 968 feet high, at a distance of mile inland. 



Red island, northwestward, distant ^ mile from cape Cormorant, 

 is about 1,400 yards long in a northeasterly and southwesterly direc- 

 tion and 700 yards wide; its coast consists of red clay cliffs, rising, 

 on the northwestern side, 292 feet above the sea. 



The coast. The western shore of the remarkable tongue of land 

 known as Long point may be considered to begin at Clam Bank 

 cove, from which place the extreme of the point is about 12 miles 

 distant. Along this shore there are two small villages, known as 

 Shoal cove and Black Duck brook, as well as a few detached cot- 



