354 AUDUBON 



not seen. Uria troile * and U.grylle* were breeding in the 

 rocks, and John saw several Ardea herodias^ flying in pairs, 

 also a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers that had glutted 

 themselves with fish so that they were obliged to disgorge 

 before they could fly off. Amongst the plants the wild 

 gooseberry, nearly the size of a green pea, was plentiful, 

 and the black currant, I think of a different species from 

 the one found in Maine. The wind rose and we returned 

 on board. John and the sailors almost killed a Seal with 

 their oars. 



June 12. At four this morning we were in sight of the 

 Magdalene Islands, or, as they are called on the chart, 

 Amherst Islands ; they appeared to be distant about twenty 

 miles. The weather was dull and quite calm, and I thought 

 the prospect of reaching these isles this day very doubtful, 

 and returned to my berth sadly disappointed. After break- 

 fast a thick fog covered the horizon on our bow, the islands 

 disappeared from sight, and the wind rose sluggishly, and 

 dead ahead. Several brigs and ships loaded with lumber 

 out from Miramichi came near us, beating their way 

 towards the Atlantic. We are still in a great degree land- 

 locked by Cape Breton Island, the highlands of which look 

 dreary and forbidding; it is now nine A. M., and we are 

 at anchor in four fathoms of water, and within a quarter of 

 a mile of an island, one of the general group; for our pilot, 

 who has been here for ten successive years, informs us that 

 all these islands are connected by dry sand-bars, with- 

 out any other ship channel between them than the one 

 which we have taken, and which is called Entree Bay, 

 formed by Entree Island and a long, sandy, projecting reef 

 connected with the main island. This latter measures forty- 

 eight miles in length, by an average of about three in 

 breadth ; Entree Island contains about fifteen hundred 

 acres of land, such as it is, of a red, rough, sandy formation, 

 the northwest side constantly falling into the sea, and ex- 

 1 Foolish Guillemot. 2 Black Guillemot. 8 Great Blue Heron. 



