136 A SUMMER'S CKUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 



asters attending the overturning and breaking of floating 

 bergs. Captain Handy, whose life-long experience as a 

 whaler in arctic regions made him a good judge, re- 

 marks as we are passing that a berg will not usually injure 

 a vessel unless a piece of ice falls upon it, but that the 

 waves will swamp a boat. At Resolution Island he 

 rowed past an immense berg, so that it could almost be 

 touched from the boat, saying to himself, " It won't last 

 three weeks ;" he had gone scarcely three ship's lengths, 

 when, with a report like the discharge of a park of artil- 

 lery, it burst into a thousand pieces, many still forming 

 large bergs; the boat was put head-to, and nearly filled 

 with water, but there was no further danger. 



Off Cape Charles the coast grows more broken and 

 hummocky, more so than west of Chateau Bay. This is 

 partly owing to the fact that we look directly up into the 

 fjords and bays, and that ithe headlands run out towards 

 us. We pass Battle Island, a comparatively low island. 



A, CAPE CHARLES, 654 FT. B, HARE ISLAND ; ENTRANCE TO CAPE CHARLES 

 HARBOR. C, CHARLES BAY. 



with the " ice-loom " or mirage resting over it. We were 

 glad to pass Battle Island Harbor, which has a bad repu- 

 tation, or, to use an Anglicism, is a "nasty" place. The 

 entrance is very sinuous, the turns short, and the vessel 

 must answer her rudder quickly when going in. Our 

 fishermen enter it late in the season, as " it is a place 

 that holds fish late." Perhaps half of the harbors here 

 are unknown, and the fishermen seldom have occasion 

 to enter the innermost ones. 



