48 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The settlement here Is one of the oldest in America. Even before 

 Jacques Cartier on a hot July day in 1534 sweltered in the Bay of Chaleurs, 

 recording his experience in its name, and planted the cross and flowers-de- 

 luce of France on the sand bar at Douglastown up Gaspe bay, fisherpeople 

 from the shores of Brittany and the Bay of Biscay had begun their opera- 

 tions under the overshadowing protection of the Rocher Perce, from which 

 the place has taken name ^ and which for near 400 years has drawn the 

 amazed wonder of every passing traveler. The beaches to the north and 

 south of the rock afforded a base of operations for the fishing, and were 

 thronged during the season with hundreds of fishermen long before 

 Henry Hudson had wet keel in the waters of New York. 



Perce rock may be prosaically described as an isolated mass of almost 

 vertical limestone strata lying at the angle between the north and south 

 beaches. Through a channel 200 yards wide roll the waters which twice 

 each day at flood tide cut it off from the lesser hights of the mainland. It is 

 288 feet high at the prow or landward end, 215 feet high over its single arch 

 and 154 feet high at its outer end. It is 1420 feet long; at its outer end 

 stands an obelisk, the remnant of a fallen arch and it is 1565 feet from prow 

 to the outer end of this pillar. It is about 300 feet in width at its widest 

 parts but varies much in its diameter. There is a narrow beach on both 

 sides for a part of the distance at low water, but it is an uncertain thing dis- 

 appearing at high water except in retreats on the north shore and at no time 

 can one now make the circuit of the rock by foot. 



The singular beauty of this amazing scenic feature is partly due to its 

 unusual symmetry, but more to its brilliancy of color. Perce rock is no 

 such gray pile as one may find among the striking sea ruins of the northern 

 oceans, on the shores of Caithness at Thurso and Scrabster in Scotland, in 

 Hoy and about Stromness in the Orkneys, and even the brighter shades in 

 the rock piles of the Magdalen islands farther out in the gulf do not make 



'In many writings, specially those of early date, the entire region is spoken of as 

 rile Percee, the name of the island having been transferred to the mainland. Only a 

 remnant of the name remains ; Perce is the place of the Pierced rock. 



