98 Capt. Bayfield's Notes on 



accounts of this event ; but it is sufficient for the object which I have in view, to mention the 

 fact of its occurrence. Frequent shocks have been felt every year since, though less violent.* 



I must now return to the description of the Mingan Islands, from which I 

 have digressed so greatly in pursuing a subject, which I believe, had not been 

 before touched upon by any author on the geology of the shores of the St. 

 Lawrence. 



8. The Mingan and Esquimaux Islands have very little soil. The lime- 

 stone, where not bare, is covered by limestone shingle or gravel, or by de- 

 cayed vegetable matter resembling peat. Hence the islands may be con- 

 sidered barren in an agricultural point of view. The timber also is small, 

 and principally spruce, with a few birch and Canadian poplar or aspen trees. 

 Blue or whortleberries, cranberries, and several other wild fruits arc in 

 abundance. 



The stream of the tides is not very strong among these islands, seldom ex- 

 ceeding a mile an hour, except in narrow channels, where it sometimes 

 attains a rate of two and a half. The rise is about seven feet in ordinary 

 spring tides, and about three feet in neap tides. 



9. The mainland is composed of low granitic hills. St. John's Mountain, 

 some miles in rear of the entrance of the river of the same name, and 1416 feet 

 above the sea at high water, is the loftiest point in the neighbourhood. There 

 is land about 1000 feet high, opposite Quarry Island, ten miles east of Min- 

 gan, but towards the east end of the chain of islands the mainland is very 

 low, the hills being far back in the country. 



The granitic rocks, a few miles to the eastward of Mingan, are composed 



* In July, 1831, the shocks at Murray Bay were more than usually severe. The walls of the 

 church, it is said, were split, stone ovens and chimneys were thrown down or displaced, and a 

 rocking motion was communicated to the houses. Many of the inhabitants were so alarmed as to 

 seek safety on board of vessels in the bay, where the shocks were also felt. This earthquake was 

 experienced at Beauport, nearly ninety miles to the south west : how far it extended in the op- 

 posite direction is not known, there being no inhabitants. It was also felt on the south side of the 

 St. Lawrence, at the Riviere Oulle, and at St. Roques : how far it might have been felt to the 

 northward of the St. Lawrence is also unknown, the country in that direction being uninhabited. 

 An intelligent lady, who was then at Murray Bay, informed me that the shocks were always pre- 

 ceded by a subterranean noise, resembling distant thunder, which approached from the northward, 

 and appeared to pass under the houses. When this noise seemed immediately beneath the house, 

 a heavy shock was felt, as if the house had received a heavy blow ; this was succeeded instantly 

 by a rocking motion of the building and undulation of the ground, producing a sensation 

 not unlike sea-sickness. The earthquakes have been, in general, accompanied or succeeded 

 immediately by squally weather, sudden gusts of wind, &c. Shocks \vere felt very frequently 

 during the months of March and April, 1833. 



