22 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



At this time, 1851, Capt. H. W. Bayfield 1 made another survey of 

 Sable Island and the bank about it. He determined the position of 

 the East and West Ends as 59 45' 59" W. long., and 60 8' 57" W. 

 long. "The east extreme of the sand hills alone remains unchanged 

 for comparison with the observations of Admiral Ogle's officers [in 

 1828], and it is satisfactory to find, that there was not only no reason 

 to find fault with their determination, but that their latitude and al- 

 so the meridian distance from Halifax is the same as ours, within two 

 or three seconds of space. About two miles of the west end of the 

 Island have been washed away since they observed in 1828, and this 

 reduction of the Island, and consequent addition to the western bar 

 is reported to have been in operation at least since 1811, and seems 

 almost certain to continue. A comparison some years hence with the 

 present survey, can alone show precisely the amount of waste in any 

 given time, the correctness or otherwise of the reported shifting of the 

 bars, and of the opinion that the Island is insensibly becoming nar- 

 rower, &c. All agree that there has been no material change in the 

 east end of the Island within the memory of anyone acquainted with 

 it, * * *." 



For the next twenty years the island enjoyed a period of compara- 

 tive stability and calm. 



The winter of 1881-82, was marked by a succession of severe gales 

 in which great erosion took place. The winds wasted from the sur- 

 face of the dunes and the waves chopped off whole sections from the 

 end of the island. During one gale an area of 70 feet by one-quarter 

 mile vanished, as a month later in a few hours did 33 feet of the whole 

 breadth of the island. Early in February occurred another violent 

 gale, this time coincident with a high run of tides. The sea had worn 

 away the embankment of dunes to within forty feet of a bluff on 

 which stood the light-keeper's barn. All hands stood by. The cat- 

 tle were removed to the porch of the lighthouse. As the staff were 

 watching the force of the waves that were undermining the embank- 

 ment, suddenly they saw a depression in the margin of the cliff, and 

 the next instant an area equal to 48 feet wide and one-quarter mile 

 long vanished into the breakers on the north side. During the night 

 the forty feet in front of the barn vanished, and the next morning the 

 barn itself went crashing down into the waves. 



1 Bayfield, Capt. H. W.: Append, to Journ. of House of Assembly, Prov. 

 of N. S. no. 24, 167-168 (1851). 



