MAGDALENE ISLANDS. 253 



pilot, who is well acquainted here, informed me that the islands 

 are all connected by dry sand-bars, and with no channel between 

 them except the one we are in, called Entree Bay, which is 

 formed by Entree Island and a long sand-spit connecting it 

 with the mainland. The island is forty-eight miles long, and 

 three in breadth ; the formation is a red rough sandy soil, and 

 the north-west side is constantly wearing away by the action of 

 the sea. Guillemots were seated upright along the projecting 

 shelvings in regular order, resembling so many sentinels on the 

 look-out ; many gannets also were seen on the extreme points 

 of the island. On one of the islands were many houses, and a 

 small church, and on the highest land a large cross, indicating 

 the religion of the inhabitants. Several small vessels lay in 

 the harbour called Pleasant Bay, but the weather is so cold we 

 cannot visit them until to-morrow. 



" June 14, 1833. Magdalene Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 It is one week since we left Eastport, and we breakfasted with 

 the thermometer at 44° in our cabin, and on deck it feels like 

 mid-winter. We landed on the island next to us so chilled that 

 we could scarcely use our hands ; two large bluffs frowned on 

 each side of us, the resort of many sea-birds, and some noble 

 ravens which we saw. Following a narrow path we soon came 

 upon one of God's best-finished jewels, a woman. She saw us 

 first, for women are always keenest in sight and perception, in 

 patience and fortitude and love, in faith and sorrow, and, as I 

 believe, in everything else which adorns our race. She was 

 hurrying towards her cottage, with a child in her arms having 

 no covering but a little shirt. The mother was dressed in coarse 

 French homespun, with a close white cotton nightcap on her 

 head, and the mildest-looking woman I had seen in many a day. 

 At a venture I addressed her in French, and it answered well, 

 for she replied in an unintelligible jargon, about one-third of 

 which I understood, which enabled me to make out that she was 

 the wife of a fisherman who lived there. 



"We walked on through the woods towards the church. 

 Who would have expected to find a church on such an island, 

 among such impoverished people ? Yet here it was, a Roman 

 Catholic church. And here we came suddenly on a hand- 

 some, youthful, vigorous, black-haired and black-bearded fellow, 



