266 Field and Forest Rambles. 



proximity even at the distance of two miles, by an intolerable 

 stench from decomposing fish, contaminating the atmosphere 

 in every direction for five miles around Anderson's Cove. 

 The smell was found to emanate not only from the latter, but 

 also from the fields around, where many cartloads had been 

 deposited by the farmers ; nevertheless, the quantities of 

 rotting fish around the margin of the lagoon seemed very little 

 diminished by the amount taken away for manure, not to 

 mention what had been consumed by the flocks of gulls and 

 crows which were feeding sumptuously on their remains. 



After skirting the shore of Anderson's Cove, we reached 

 the entrance of the narrow, tortuous passage leading to the 

 lagoon ; here the first traces of the disaster were manifested 

 by enormous quantities of fishes, impacted between and among 

 the fallen masses of rock, which were literally besmeared all 

 over with the crushed flesh and bones of herrings, whilst the 

 sides and bottom of the lagoon were covered with their entire 

 and mangled remains, forming heaps several feet in depth, 

 more especially in places where there had evidently been 

 eddies, whilst the limits of the tide were distinctly marked by 

 a pile of their bodies which fringed the basin of the lagoon. 

 On the muddy bottom they lay as thick as herrings in a 

 barrel, interspersed with remains of crabs, lobsters, sea-mussels, 

 and other shells, together with enormous numbers of the dead 

 bodies of star-fishes, etc. 



A friend who resides in the neighbourhood suggested that 

 the shoal had been chased into the enclosure by sharks, or 

 other predaceous fishes, and were subsequently suffocated by 

 the muddy waters of the lagoon. But the mangled remains 

 in the passage and shallow water in Anderson's Cove, together 

 with the fury of the gale, rather seemed to indicate that the 

 vast assemblage, getting into shallow water, and under the 

 influence of the breakers, was driven pell-mell up the passage 

 and against its rocky sides into the lagoon, where the survivors 

 perished from the combined fury of the waves and the muddy 



