ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 7 



used to run the whole length of that beach. In the larger dune hol- 

 lows are fresh-water ponds, and near the shores, and especially at the 

 eastern end of Wallace Lake, are series of brackish ponds. The dunes, 

 especially those near the sea, and the pond shores are well covered 

 with vegetation. The beach grass forms a thin covering over all but 

 the most recent dunes and flats, but there are great stretches, espec- 

 ially near the East End, where the blown sand is beyond control, drift- 

 ing over everything and forming a barren desert of shifting white sand. 

 This is a bird's-eye view of Sable Island as it was in 1913, but we know 

 from trustworthy records that many changes had taken place and 

 that previously it was very different, at least in size. 



EARLY HISTORY OF SABLE ISLAND. 



Who was the first of the European voyagers to sight Sable Island, 

 we cannot now say. It is certain, though, that at the beginning of 

 the 16th century, the fishermen of western Europe were acquainted 

 with it. 1 "This is shown by maps of the period One preserved 

 in the royal library at Munich, marked as made by Pedro Reinel, 

 who is described by Herrera as ' a Portuguese pilot of much fame/ 

 and supposed to be of about the year 1505, has it under the name of 

 Santa Cruz. 



"On the 13th March, 1521, the King of Portugal granted to Joan 

 Alvarez Fagundez a large territory embracing Nova Scotia and ad- 

 jacencies, together with various islands lying off it, which he is said 

 to have discovered on a previous voyage, and among them is Santa 

 Cruz." 



"Gastaldi, a distinguished Italian cartographer, in a map of 1548, 

 represents it under the name Isolla del Arena, and he is followed by 

 his countryman, Zaltieri in 1566. But as early as 1546 Joannes 

 Freire, a Portuguese mapmaker, calls it I. de Sable, * * * and by 

 the end of that period it seems to have been commonly known by that 

 name." 



This is no place to give a detailed history of Sable Island; conse- 

 quently only the more important facts, especially those bearing on 

 its physiography or natural history, will be mentioned. 



1 Much of this historical data has been freely drawn from Patterson, Rev. 

 George: Sable Island: Its History and Phenomena. Trans. Roy. Soc. 

 Can. xii. 2. 3-49 (1894). 



