CHAPTER V 
THE CRUISE OF LA BELLE MARGUERITE FROM 
ESQUIMAUX POINT TO NATASHQUAN 
“Through the Northern Gulf and the misty screen 
Of the isles of Mingan and Madeleine.” 
— Whittier. 
HE Labrador Coast from the base of the 
Peninsula to Cape Charles at the en- 
trance of the Straits of Belle Isle is nearly 
600 miles in length, and from Cape Charles to 
Cape Chidley at the northern extremity of the 
eastern coast the distance is about 700 miles. 
With a few insignificant gaps this entire coast 
line of over one thousand miles is so beset with 
islands that it is possible to cruise in a small 
boat in protected water-ways nearly the whole 
distance. One must bide one’s time, however, 
in the gaps, for in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as 
well as on the Atlantic Coast the seas are often 
of the stormiest. 
At Esquimaux Point, with the kind assist- 
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