PERCE AND BONAVENTURE 135 
out, the Rock is the prominent feature of the coast 
line. It dominates its surroundings as a snow- 
capped mountain rules its dependent ranges. To 
the bird lover it possesses a double fascination, and 
one is constantly attracted by the ceaseless cries 
of the throng of hovering birds, who in some inde- 
scribable way seem to invest their home with a sense 
of the charm, the freedom, the wildness of a sea- 
bird’s life. It isa true bird rock; man has no part 
in it. 
At sunset this bond between the Rock and its 
inhabitants seemed especially strong and_ real. 
Through a notch in the western hills the last rays 
of the sun fell squarely upon the Rock, illuminating 
it and the ever-present soaring Gulls after the land 
and the sea were in shadow. Slowly the light left 
the Rock, until it, too, was of the same gray-blue as 
its surroundings ; then, like the beams from a search- 
light, it struck the circling mass of Gulls, making 
them seem a flurry of snowflakes descending into 
the gloom below. 
The pilgrim to Percé Rock will find that the 
object of his journey not only exceeds in grandeur 
his brightest imagination of it, but he will be fur- 
ther rewarded by discovering Percé itself and the 
country round about to be of exceptional interest 
and beauty. It was the season of codfishing, and 
every morning a fleet of a hundred or more stanch 
little boats, each with two men, put out into the bay 
for a day’s fishing. Their return, late in the after- 
noon, was an eventful part of the day. Then the 
beach was the center of attraction as boat after boat 
came in, the men depositing their catch on the sands, 
