ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 23 



The sea was now within 12 feet of the West Lighthouse, a splendid 

 tower built in 1873 at a cost of $40,000. During two days of un- 

 usually quiet weather, a heavy ground-swell set in from the south- 

 east undermining the embankment till the lighthouse canted over 

 dangerously. Before the crash the apparatus was removed. Later it 

 was installed about a mile further east. The sea continued to ad- 

 vance and in 1888 the light was again removed, two miles farther east. 



From this time, another period of comparative stability started. 

 It will be seen that such has been the regular course of events: dur- 

 ing a few years every storm causes violent destruction of a part of the 

 island, then follows a period of 10, 20, or 40 years of quiet. This is 

 probably to be explained by the protecting action of the sand washed 

 from the island and deposited on the surrounding bars during the 

 years of active erosion. The building-up of these bars makes a pro- 

 tecting ring upon which the waves break their fury before reaching 

 the island. When these bars have been worn down the waves can 

 again vigorously attack the island, and another period of destruction 

 ensues. 



We have no more recent survey, but only the observations of those 

 stationed on the island, which tell us that it is now twenty miles long, 

 less than one mile broad, and its highest point, Rigging Hill, nearly 

 100 feet high. 



CHANGES IN WALLACE LAKE. 



The physical changes in Sable Island are also evidenced in Wallace 

 Lake, the great salt-water pond that occupies the center of the island 

 for over half its length. 



Le Mercier gives us our first good account 1 of this lake, in the year 

 1753. "Within these seven or eight Years, Providence hath opened 

 a Communication between the great Pond (fifteen Miles long) and 

 the Sea, which hath made a safe and large Harbour; but the Entrance 

 is barred so that large and sharp Vessels cannot get into it; but as 

 there is about 8 Feet of Water over the Bar at high Water there is 

 sufficient Passage (as we know by Experience) for Vessels of 30 Tuns 

 or more, if not built Sharp. " 



On Des Barres' chart from the survey of 1766 and 1767 the lake is 

 shown very much as at present, but with a broad opening to the sea 

 through the dunes on the north side, with soundings in its center of 



Boston Weekly News Letter, February 8 (1753). 



