138 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



At Spear Point the outline of the coast is very rough ; 

 at the entrance to Spear Harbor, which is a shallow bight, 

 there is a high, sugar-loaf island ; two black-sailed " jacks "' 

 are entering it. Cape St. Francis is a bold, syenitic head- 

 land. Over Square Island, which now comes in sight, 

 being fifteen miles ahead, there is a fine mirage, with 

 castle-like, shadowy forms resting on the rock. We are 

 now sailing between the ice-pack and the shore, one 

 nearly as solid in appearance as the other. The wind is 

 still off shore, but should it change to the eastward the 

 ice would, come in upon us and choke up the bays and 

 harbors. Behind us is a pale bluish haze which passes 

 into a well-marked mirage, and as we sail on it raises the 

 higher points of the land beneath and expands above 

 with weird, strange effects. Beyond us the mirage mag- 

 nifies the larger floes into huge bergs. 



NORTH SIDE OF FISHING SHIP HARBOR. 



In St. Francis Harbor is a "room" and a "look-out" 

 house ; a small bay beyond appears to be filled with ice. 

 The coast at Fishing Ship Harbor is unusually rough 

 and broken, like the waves of a chop-sea ; and there ap- 

 peared to be two terraces at this point, the upper one 

 very high, but whether of gravel or of rock was difficult 

 to distinguish. The wind now become very changeable 

 and baffling, veering from one point to another ; and our 

 progress was compared by the Captain to sailing up 

 the Potomac. Passing by perpendicular sea-cliffs, and a 



