60 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



Bonne Esperance even. From Mingan west to Long Point, a distance of about 

 six miles, this low sand beach extends almost without a single rock, I believe, 

 while the east beach is entirely of sand. The river itself passes through a 

 ridge of this same material which forms a high bank on the left and a low one 

 on the right, as one passes inland, while the whole land rises directly from the 

 sea then falls in a northeasterly direction, and the trend of greatest height, 

 here, as nearly everywhere along this part of the coast, is in a northwesterly 

 direction. In the background, the distant hills rise to the height of at least a 

 thousand feet, while dim outlines of others, of perhaps greater height, appear in 

 the horizon. This is the picture whose charming outline at once attracts and 

 captivates one upon entering the harbor of this sequestered little spot. . . . 



At the mouth of both rivers [the Mingan and Romaine] are shallows and 

 accumulations filling the water with ridges that control strongly the current at 

 this point. These sand bars are constantly shifting, while in places they have 

 overrun each other and piled up small islands of sand which becoming over- 

 grown with grass or scant vegetation have become the nesting places of gulls 

 and ducks, thus supplying the people with birds and eggs in large numbers 

 whenever they are desired. Following up the river [Mingan] you will find sand 

 and sand banks on either hand, and extending, with scant vegetation, far 

 inland 



"From the shore [at tlie mouth of Mingan River] we could see the summit of 

 Mt. St. John's, lying some fifteen miles inland in a northwesterly direction, 

 which mountain is said to be a little over fourteen hundred feet in height. Directly 

 inland the country is said to rise in successive steps — if one might use the word 

 in this connection, — to what is termed the "height of land," some five hundred 

 miles inland, where a chain of mountains, peculiar to the whole lower St. 

 Lawrence region, and northerly Quebec, with peaks varying from one to three 

 thousand feet in height, continues in an eastern trend towards the sea, which it 

 reaches at the extremity of the Labrador peninsula, near Ivucktoke, or Hamilton 

 Inlet. 



Here we have sufficient feed for a few cattle at least, bird islands, 

 strong tides, and a background of mountains. A place possessing 

 somewhat similar advantages is Seven Islands, farther west, a former 

 Indian gathering place, and there are other places suitable for settle- 

 ment such as the Greenlanders were attempting higher up on both 

 sides of the river. I think there is no doubt that we are in the im- 

 mediate region of Streamfirth even if we cannot carry our identifica- 

 tion any closer. 



In transferring the sites of Wonder-strands, Keelness, Stream 

 Isle, and Streamfirth from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to points 

 inside the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Steensby performed a distinct ser- 

 vice to all students of the Wineland voyages, but when he goes on to 

 place Wineland in the same region, only farther up toward the mouth 

 of the river, like Hermannsson and Thordarson, I fail to follow him. 

 Carried far enough it would bring the voyagers into a wild-grape 

 country but, at the same time, to a certain knowledge of the great 



