BEGINS CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS 279 



to spare in Halifax and Dr. McKay, Superintendent of Schools 

 for Nova Scotia, took me round and we botanized together. 



Early in July, I embarked for Sable Island and our trip was 

 a pleasant one, but the wind caused a rough sea and I had to sit 

 on the bridge all day long and watch the steersman. Early in 

 the morning, when we started, the course was laid for the Island, 

 and it was laid down one hundred and two miles and we were to 

 run it in a certain number of hours. The day was beautifully 

 clear and the wind was not very strong, but it was always from 

 the west and, as I sat and heard the steersman, when he would 

 leave, give the direction to the quartermaster, as he was called, 

 I found that the direction in which they steered never altered 

 for the whole day and I wondered why, for no account was taken 

 of the drift that I considered was taking place on account of the 

 wind. The result was that, although we should have reached our 

 objective before dark, when evening came, there was no sight of 

 the island; however, the moon, being at the full, there was no 

 danger of running on shore, in my opinion, but, when we did not 

 make the Island, and the "log" showed we had travelled further 

 than we should have, the Captain suddenly woke up and dis- 

 covered that something was wrong. A man was sent up the mast 

 and, in a short time, he returned and reported that we had drifted, 

 apparently, nearly twenty miles to the east and a swift order was 

 given to "about ship," and we sailed to the usual anchorage and 

 cast anchor. In a short time, a surf boat came out for us and we 

 were taken on board and started for shore. After going over a 

 series of shallow places, where there were considerable rollers, 

 we reached a point where the boat could proceed no further and 

 then each passenger got on a man's shoulders and was carried to 

 shore and I found that, all the time I stopped on the island, this 

 was the mode of landing. I spent nearly three months on the 

 Island as the guest of the Superintendent and learned all that was 

 possible in regard to the Island, both past and present. 



I found that the grass, being destroyed along the south shore, 

 caused the sand hills to be flattened out by the wind and ex- 

 posed the island to the encroachments of the sea. Thus I 

 spent a summer very pleasantly on the island and had many ad- 



