THE SAGUENAT. 171 



shall say that the mysterious eddies and currents that environ 

 and constantly beset the Island of Anticosti and make its 

 circumnavigation as dangerous as Scylla and Charibdis, are 

 not occasioned by this unseen agent ? 



Three centuries ago Jacques Cartier, the bold investigator, 

 sent a boat's crew to explore the penetralia of this mighty 

 chasm, and they were never heard of afterward. "What won- 

 der then that for subsequent decades of years it should have 

 been invested with a weird and supernatural character? 

 that tales should have been believed of its unnavigable cur- 

 rent, immeasurable depths, terrible hurricanes, dangerous 

 rocks and destructive whirlpools? Even to-day it is not 

 without some feeling of awe that sailors pass within the iron- 

 bound naked headlands that guard its savage portals. Mists 

 continually envelop it and fill its Titanic gorges. Winds, 

 keen as November blasts, whirl through its channel walls, at 

 times, in midsummer. Whales and porpoises disport in its 

 inky waves, and seals innumerable play upon its surface. A 

 description by a London Times correspondent who accom- 

 panied the Prmce of Wales to this river on the occasion of 

 his visit to America, is the most graphic ever printed, and 

 though often read, will bear insertion here. He writes : 



"Gloomy black clouds rested on the mountains, and 

 seemed to double their height, pouring over the rugged 

 cliffs in a stream of mist till, lifting suddenly with the hoarse 

 gusts of wmd, they allowed short glimpses into what may 

 almost be called the terrors of the Saguenay scenery. It is 

 on such a day, above all others, that the savage wildness and 

 gloom of this extraordinary river is seen to thQ greatest ad- 

 vantage. Sunlight and clear sky are out of place over its 

 black waters. Anything which recalls the life and smile of 

 natm-e is not in unison with the huge naked cliffs, raw, cold, 

 and silent as the tombs. An Itahan spring could effect no 

 change in the deadly, rugged aspect ; nor does winter add 

 one iota to its mournful desolation. It is with a sense of 

 relief that the tourist emerges from its sullen gloom, and looks 



