igosU Entente Cordiale 



effect of assigning to Germany the role of Britain's End of a 

 hereditary enemy, formerly held by France. Credit f"^'^^"^ 

 for the entente cordiale has generally been given to 

 Edward VII, and to a lesser extent to Sir Thomas 

 Barclay, though the more honor is certainly due to 

 Delcasse. French soldiers now swarmed over Eng- 

 land as guests of the British government, and a 

 characteristic bit of humor in the Paris press pro- 

 claimed that London was so enchanted it had affixed 

 the letters "E. C." to half the streets in "the 

 City"! 



Holidays over, we sailed for home on a Cana- 

 dian vessel plying between Liverpool and Montreal. 

 Off the straits of Belle Isle, outside the entrance to 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we were beset by a thick 

 fog which the boat entered just at dinner time. That 

 no chances might be taken, the engines were stopped 

 for six hours during which we supposedly held the 

 same approximate point. But at midnight when the "Danger 

 fog suddenly lifted, Quirpon Light off Newfoundland ''^"^" 

 appeared only a mile away, the ship having been 

 carried by currents some thirty miles from her as- 

 sumed position. Only a few moments more, perhaps, 

 and we should have beefi on the rocks. Morning dis- 

 closed also a gigantic iceberg, a thousand feet or so 

 in diameter, close on our port bow, a magnificent 

 sight; but its presence indicated the impotence of 

 even a great iron ship in the event of a collision. 



In the midst of the Gulf, in perfectly clear weather, EMpse 

 we watched a total eclipse of the sun to which °{^' 

 astronomers had long looked forward. But the sci- 

 entific observers were unfortunately stationed along 

 the coast of Labrador, where shifting fogs fatally 

 interfered with their work. 



c 163 a 



