LITTLE MECATTINA AND MUTTON BAY 



the skillful management of Captain Joncas, 

 rode them like a duck and kept her decks dry. 

 Not only were the waves and the wind behind 

 us, but also the sun, and, when the waves shut 

 out its direct rays, the clear, transparent water 

 sparkled with a wonderful green brilliancy. 

 All too soon we reached Cape Mecattina with 

 its rocky heights patched in places with snow, 

 and passed into the shelter of Mutton Bay. 

 This prosaically named place was the Baie de 

 Portage — so called on account of an ancient 

 Indian portage — into which Audubon in the 

 Ripley entered on July 21, 1833. We were 

 three days ahead of him in the calendar, and, 

 while the Ripley, before "a stiff northwest 

 breeze," had sailed from the harbor at Little 

 Mecattina Island in five hours, we had scudded 

 across in three. It seems too bad to race with 

 Audubon, but I think he would have enjoyed 

 it. I know Ingalls and Shattuck and Tom Lin- 

 coln and Coolidge and young John Woodhouse 

 would have considered it great larks! 



The derivation of the present name of the 

 bay is uncertain, as there are no sheep there 

 and probably never have been. The botanist 

 suggested that it might have been named from 



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